New Players on the Stage
by Blackbird
Summary: With Brother Blood defeated everything was suppose to be simple for the Titans.  For a time it was, until they showed up...updated FINALLY
1. The Other Team

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohebitied. You got that? _

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**New Players on the Stage ******

**Chapter One: The Other Team**

It was a beautiful autumn night in the city. The temperature fell perfectly within the not-too-hot/not-too-cold range with a gentle breeze blowing through every now and then to make sure things stayed that way. The full moon bathed everything in a soft light, adding even more to the already romantic mood of the evening. Many young couples walked down the streets arm and arm, taking the time to simply enjoy one another's company. Peaceful nights like these were rare in Jump City, so when they arrived the citizens usually made the most of them for they never knew when that peace might be shattered.

And indeed the calm and relative silence of the night was soon shattered by a loud explosion. The source of which were the main doors to the Wayne Tech building located in the city being blown off the hinges. The explosion was quickly followed by the sounds of muttered cursing and laser beams as three oddly dressed teens fled the building while fighting with the surprisingly well prepared security team. Being no stranger to costumed criminals invading their company, the higher ups went to great lengths to insure they the Jump City branch would be just as capable to handle any unusual threats as their home office in Gotham was. Tonight that extra precaution seemed to be paying off but the security team still seemed to have a hard time dealing with the young criminals. After the initial attack, the building's intel crew quickly informed the security force that three belonged to the criminal organization know as the Hive. The two forces battled each other to a stand still that showed no signs of breaking any time soon.

"Jinx, I could use some help here!" Gizmo shouted as he returned the guards' fire.

"Little busy myself here!" the pink haired sorceress replied while she cart wheeled between another folly of shots. "Mammoth, can you do anything?"

"Not unless you want to carry this thing," the largest among the group grunted while shifted a bulky piece of equipment in his arms. "Don't know why I always gotta be the one to do the heavy lifting."

"Cause you're the strong one ya crunge muncher!" Gizmo berated him before barely avoiding another of the guards' shots. "Grudge! We gotta get this guys off our backs!"

"If we can make it out the doors I might be able to something about that," Jinx informed him.

"What do you think we've been doing this whole flippin' time!"

As the battling, and arguing, raged on the combatants were unaware that they were being watched throughout the ordeal. On the roof of the building adjacent to the Wayne Tech building, four figures had situated themselves so they could observe the battle and not be seen themselves. Though only one had a pair of binoculars to truly watch the fight, the other three looked on as best they could. After a moment though, one of the figures stood up and began to pace around the rest of the group impatiently.

"Come on! How much longer to we have to wait! You know we could take these guys so why don't we just do it!"

"You know the plan. We attack only after we get the signal," the figure with the binoculars said calmly.

"Well that better be soon because I don't know how much more of this I can stand."

"Just calm down it'll-hold on something's happening."

The lead figure refocused the binoculars to get a better view at what was happening. The Hive kids had finally managed to break away from the guards' fire and exit the building. Once they had cleared the exit, Jinx crossed her arms to shoot out two hex bolts in an X pattern that destroyed the structure above the entrance, which caused the rubble to fall in front of it and provide them a much needed respite.

"Finally!" Gizmo sighed. "Man that Wayne guy sure hires some tough security. I wonder what his deal is?"

"The fact that he has some of the best high tech stuff and therefore makes him a target for all kinds of criminals?" Jinx asked rhetorically. 

"Yeah whatever. Let's just get out of here before-" the diminutive genius stopped when he noticed the third member of their team walking away from them. "Hey Mammoth, you OK?"

The giant boy ignored him and continued to walk towards the building across the street. When he was more then halfway there he stopped and held the piece of machinery they had just stolen above his head. While Jinx and Gizmo gave each other confused looks, the onlookers on top of said building tensed up slightly in preparation for the next stage of their plan.

"That's the signal. Go for it," the lead figure said, nodding towards the one on it's left.

The two criminals on the ground still looked at their teammate like he had gone completely insane when, to their further surprise, the device he was holding began to float upwards.

"What the crud?" Gizmo asked, mostly to himself.

Once the machine was safely out of his hands, Mammoth turned back towards the other two. The looked at him in search of answers, but only found more questions as his body began to shudder and change shape. They watched dumbfounded as his form shrank down to that of an averaged height boy wearing mostly dust colored clothing highlighted with a chrome chest plate, shin guards and heavy padded gloves, topped of with a long, tattered dust colored cape hanging off his shoulders. His light brown hair hung in a disheveled fashion half way down his ears and his chocolate colored eyes held a sense of anxiety and almost fear.

"I'm sorry," was all he told them.

At this point, hundreds of questions where floating through the remaining two Hive kids' minds. Who was this new kid standing in front of them? How long had he been impersonating Mammoth? Where was the real Mammoth? What happened to that equipment they just stole? And just what the heck was going on!

None of these questions received answers, however, as the sound of an explosion from behind them drew their attention. Thinking the guards had managed to break free, they turned in readiness to fight but found a fire burning in the street instead. They were so distracted by the sudden appearance of the fire that they barely registered the sounds of something, or someone, hitting the pavement behind them. Before they could turn back around, Gizmo felt a surge of electricity race through his gadget laden backpack and short out all its systems. He let out a cry of pain as the electricity reached his suit and within seconds he fell to the ground completely unconscious.

Jinx spun around on her heel to face the attacker, but the second she raised her hands to unleash her hex bolts, they were immediately incased in some soft of metal clamps. She stared at them in confusion for a second then gasped as they started to pull towards each other. She groaned as she fought against the magnetic force, but ultimately the devices won out and her hands where stuck together in front of her. She was about to run when the same strange devices were attached to her feet and clamped them together as well. She swayed for a moment before she tumbled to the ground in an undignified heap.

As the pink haired witch struggled against her bonds, she heard the all too familiar sound of a motorcycle and car racing towards her. She hoped that it would be someone, anyone else, but those hopes where quickly dashed when she spotted the red bike and silver and blue car coming closer. She renewed her efforts to break her bonds before they arrived. A run in with the Titans was never good, except for a certain half metal one, but having them see her like this would be down right humiliating. Unfortunately, it seemed whoever designed the clamps not only knew how to negate her powers they also made them pretty much unbreakable or at least unbreakable to her in her current state. She let out a soft groan when she heard the two engines come to a stop and the sounds of four car doors opening and closing. She chanced a glance upwards and saw the Titans surveying the damage.

"Whoa, what happened here?" Beast Boy asked as he looked at the partially destroyed building.

"Good question. And I think I know someone who might be able to answer it," Robin replied when he spotted the still struggling Jinx.

He took a step towards her but stopped when he felt a large, heavy hand on his shoulder. Not surprisingly he looked up to see Cyborg standing over him.

"Let me handle this," he said calmly.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the Titans' leader asked in a skeptical tone.

Cyborg paused for a second at the tone of Robin's question, sensing that there was another part that went unasked. He wasn't about to broche the subject any further though.

"I can handle it," he reassured his friend before he walked towards the captive girl. When he reached her he gave her a quick look over before he reached down and carefully picked her up by her shoulders until she was eye leave with them. "Alright Jinx, what happened here?"

She stared into his eyes, both real and mechanical, for a moment as she searched for the right words. Though they were on opposite sides and technically she didn't have to tell him anything, she didn't feel quite right lying to him but at the same time she wasn't about to reveal their plans or fess up to the carnage they'd caused. Still she owed him something that hopefully wouldn't give away their little secret in front of his teammates.

"We…were attacked," she finally stated, giving him a weak smile.  
There, that was the truth.

"And what about that?" he countered, nodding towards the rubble blocking the entrance to the building behind them.

"Oh. That. Well…you know…that was…"

"Caused by them," a new voice spoke up.

All those present, save for the still unconscious Gizmo, turned towards the direction the voice had come from and where greeted by the site of not just one, but four newcomers stepping out of the shadows and towards the Teen Titans. They were received with suspicious and questioning looks as they approached. Cyborg gently set Jinx back down as he turned his full attention to the new group with the rest of his team. When Jinx saw the same boy that had impersonated Mammoth with them, she tried to warn the Titans, but was interrupted when Robin spoke up.

"So you saw them attack this building?" he asked, pointing towards the Wayne Tech building.

"Yep," the decidedly female voice replied. "Stopped them too as you can see."

"I can. So who are you?"

With that the four stepped completely into the light given off from both the streetlamp and the full moon, giving the Titans there first good look at the new group. The girl that had spoken to Robin was dressed in a similar fashion to him. He could see dark red sleeves and leggings that lent to the idea that her base costume was a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pants, over top of which she wore a longer, sleeveless black shirt that buttoned towards the left sided with a red trimming running from the color and along the seem. She had a grey belt around her waist that created a skirting effect with the bottom half of the over shirt. Over her feet and hands where matching black gloves that came up towards her shins and forearms respectively. Over the entire outfit she wore a cape that wrapped around her neck and had a black exterior and a dark red interior. Of course it was all topped off with a red mask that, much like Robin's covered her eyes and allowed those looking at her to only see two white pieces looking back. Her face was framed by her straight, neck length blond hair. A mischievous smile tugged at her lips as she formally introduced herself.

"I'm Strika," she pointed a thumb to herself. "To my left is Prya."

She inclined her head towards her left shoulder and all eyes turned towards the girl standing a few feet away. She seemed almost the polar opposite of Strika. While the former chose to dress in dark, full covering clothes, Prya chose a bright, yellow body suit that stopped at mid-chest leaving her shoulders exposed and showing of a bit of cleavage. Her arms would have been exposed as well if it were not for the red full-length gloves she wore. To match them she wore red thigh high boots and like the gloves and the top of her suit, they ended in a wave of spikes that gave the whole ensemble the appearance of flames. Her hair only added to the illusion by being a fiery red and falling widely down towards her lower back, it seemed to a flame all on its own. Her eyes were a bright green that shone with a hint of danger, accentuated by the smirk on her face and her hands placed firmly on her hips.

"And to my right is Beta," Strika continued.

Again, the gaze of the Titans' shifted around the other team's apparent leader to a member on her other side. This time it was a boy in a primarily dark grey shirt and pants combination broken by to dark blue strips that started at the middle of the shirt and continued parallel to each other down the sides of his pants and tucked into his thick, grey boots. The pattern was broken by a tech looking belt around his waist while the whole outfit was topped of with a dark blue jacket with a brown suede collar. His shaggy, dark brown hair hung loosely around his face. His eyes were what drew most of the Titans' attention though. They were a cold, gunmetal grey color that seemed almost inhuman, but still carried a look of arrogance to them. His posture seemed to indicate this as well with him standing with his hands in his pockets and looking slightly relaxed, yet still ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Next to him is Mercurial."

This time they were faced with a boy in a mostly brown costume and a tattered cape with a few chrome armored plates. He stood in the slightly hunched over posture of someone who was shy or nervous. He fidgeted a little as he looked up at the Titans, his eyes full of anxiety. Although they didn't know it, this was the boy Gizmo and Jinx had encountered earlier. She would have warned them about him if she had not been cut off again as Strika spoke up. 

"And up on the roof guarding the equipment those two stole is Tekka." 

All eyes turned upwards to where the red and black clad girl was pointing, but they were unable to make out the figure standing on the roof. After a few more seconds of trying, they gave up and once again looked towards the four figures standing before them. None of them were really sure what to make of this new group, especially Robin. He knew that Cyborg and Beast Boy would probably call him paranoid, but something didn't sit quite right with him about these newcomers. Their timing in apprehending the Hive students, or at least Jinx and Gizmo as Mammoth was nowhere to be found, seemed just a little too convenient. Not too mention too easy. The Titans had crossed patched with those three many times and while their fights always ended in a Titan victory, it was still a hard fought battle. It was possible there was a fight between the two groups before they showed up, but he saw no signs of a struggle, save for the rubble blocking off the entrance to the Wayne Tech building.

There was something else that bothered him as well. It was something that was struggling against his detective skills. Something he had registered before he began deducing, but shrugged it off until now. As he looked over the group he realized that they had introduced themselves and through years of attending upper class social events, as well as constant reminders from an elderly English butler, he knew that the proper etiquette was for Titans to introduce themselves back. So, in spite of his better judgment he spoke up in a formal, welcoming tone.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said. "I'm Robin and these are-"

"The Teen Titans of course," Strika cut him off. "Can't live in this city and not know how you guys are. Pleasure's all ours."

She held out her hand with the last statement. Again Robin's suspicions mixed with his upbringing and he hesitantly held out his own hand. The two gloved appendages met and locked to make a firm handshake.

"So what do you call your team?" Robin asked as he still held her hand. 

"Well if you really want to know," she replied, slowly taking on an ominous quality. "We're called…Terror Sect."

Robin raised an eyebrow at the name, but his question was lost when he felt her grip on his hand tighten. The sensations he felt next were that of being pulled forward and all the air rushing out of his lungs thanks to a tremendous pressure on his stomach. Through the pain he was able to look down and she Strika's knee firmly implanted in his stomach.

"Now!" she shouted.

With that, the other team took advantage of the startled teens and launched a vicious attack on the surprised Titans.

_To Be Continued_…

Author's Notes: Well you're probably wondering why I chose to end this chapter here. I mean, I know it's not much, but there are two reasons. 1) The original version of this chapter was pretty long and I was only half way through it so I decided to split it up to lead into the big fight. 2) The original version also got completely screwed up on the disk I had and therefore I lost it all. Fortunately my good friend NateZ had a copy I sent to him awhile ago and he was able to send it back. Bad news is, I lost a couple fight scenes so it's going to set me back a bit. So I decided to post this to have something up and incase it ever happened again I wouldn't loose ALL of the fic. So at least I was able to put up Terror Sect's intro. Think of this as the teaser before the show starts. Next time, fighting galore! Just don't ask me when it'll be up cause I honestly don't know. I can promise this though, it'll be a slobber knocker!


	2. And The Fought On Into The Night

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans and never well. I DO own the OCs here so no using without my permission, OK?_

**New Players on the Stage **

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****Chapter Two: And They Fought On Into the Night **

The Teen Titans had seen many things over their short time as a team. They had faced many dangerous villains who wanted nothing more than their total destruction. They had even had to deal with one of their own turning against them. Through all the trials and tribulations, they had learned to expect the unexpected. To be ready for whatever danger may come their way.

Unfortunately, since the defeat of Brother Blood there had been a lack of serious threats around. The HIVE students provided some excitement, and there was that incident with the new villain Thrash a week or so ago, there had simply been no one near the caliber of Slade and Blood. So without knowing, the Titans had slipped into a routine. One minor baddie would act up and they would stop him or her with little difficulty. And so it was that when this new group showed up, though a bit hesitant, they really thought nothing of it. That was, until their leader, the girl calling herself Strika, attacked Robin and then shouted at the others with her.

While the cry was obviously a signal to her own team, it also worked to wake the Titans up from their state of semi-shock. Once they acknowledged their leader was in trouble they race forward to help him. Unfortunately, they were stopped short by a wall of flame provided by Pyra. It dissipated shortly there after but it not only provided enough time for Strika to spin Robin around and further separate him from the rest of them, but also for Beta to charge forward and slam directly into Cyborg. Much to bigger man's surprise, the force of the tackle actually caused him to move backwards. Beta kept his pace, moving Cyborg back with inhuman strength until he finally slammed through the exterior wall of the Wayne Tech building.

Starfire was at a loss as to what to do. Two of her friends were in trouble and she didn't know which one to help. Both were more than capable of holding their own in battle, but this new enemy seemed to have caught them all off guard. She turned her head back and further between the two. While she knew that Cyborg could take more physical damage then any of them, he had been run through a fairly strong wall and might have suffered critical injuries. On the other hand, Robin had no special powers at all. He was a good fighter, perhaps the best of the group, but he was still only human. And he was closet to her. But could she really leave Cyborg at the mercy of their new foe over something so trivial? Though she knew if she tried to help him, he would simply say he could handle it on his own. But then Robin would also the say the same thing. Robin was their leader though and it was her duty to help him.

_Yes. I will help Robin,_ she thought firmly.

Unfortunately, the moment she took a step towards him a fireball landed in front of her, nearly scorching her foot. She jumped back slightly then turned towards the direction it had come from to find Pyra standing a few feet away with a wicked grin on her face.

"Come and get me!" she dared before she launched herself into the air.

Acting more on instinct than anything else, Starfire followed her opponent, her eyes glowing with emerald fire. For a moment she thought of going back to help Robin, but decided against it. She realized the best way to help her friends now was to reduce to the number of potential threats. Besides, she had just been challenged and she would not let that go unanswered.

This left Raven and Beast Boy as the only Titans not currently in a fight. Before Beast Boy could ask what their plan was, Raven flew up to the roof of the building that has been pointed out to them. She remembered that Strika girl had mentioned another of their team was still on the roof guarding a piece of equipment. Sure enough when she landed she spotted a girl standing in front of a large looking piece of machinery. She was dressed in dark, navy blue leather outfit that consisted of a vest like top with black straps and golden buckles across the middle to keep it closed. Her mid-drift was bare and showed of her finely toned stomach and abs then the costume continued with the same color pants and boots that came up to her mid-thigh and were topped of with straps as well. Her shoulders were bare but the rest of her arms were covered with full-length gloves matching the rest of her outfit and again topped with black straps. Her ebony locks were tied into a high ponytail that stopped at about the base of her neck with two bangs framing her face. She had a mocha colored skin with eyes to match. Eyes that were currently focused sorely on Raven. The young sorceress prepared herself for whatever attack might come as she spoke up.

"I don't suppose you'd just like me take that without a fight, would you?" she tried though she already knew the answer.

"No," the other simply replied.

To emphasis her point, she held out a hand towards a few steel pipes sitting idly on the roof. A second later they were levitated into the air and launched at Raven. Already on guard, the dark Titan erected her black aura around to her act as a shield for pipes to easily, if not loudly, deflect off of. In retaliation, she engulfed a nearby crate in her aura and threw it towards the other girl. She watched with interest as it stopped a few inches from the girl's body and splintered into pieces at if it had a hit a wall, leaving the girl unscratched. For a second, Raven thought she had seen the glimmer of a force field around her as the crate hit.

"A telekinetic," she surmised in her usual monotone.

"Yep," Tekka replied.

"So I guess this is going to be a battle of wills then."

"Yep. Care to find out whose is stronger?"

Despite herself, a smirk passed by Raven's lips.

"Gladly."

As the two telekinetic began their battle on the roof, Beast Boy stared at the only member of the so-called Terror Sect that was not currently engaged in a fight with his own teammates. If he remembered correctly that Strika girl had called this one Mercurial. He didn't really seem all that tough. Actually, he appeared more scared than anything. Feeling a slight sense of déjà vu for some reason, Beast Boy cautiously walked towards the other boy, hoping to avoid a fight if he could.

"Stay back!" Mercurial shouted, cowering down a bit more at the sight of other shape shifter's approach.

"Easy dude, I don't wanna to have hurt ya," Beast Boy said in a gentle voice.

"D-don't want to fight."

"Cool. Me neither. So if you could just tell your friends to stop attacking mine, maybe we could work something out."

"Don't want, don't want to fight. But…but I have to!"

"Why?"

"Part of the plan. Have to fight. Have to win."

"Look, dude just-" the green Titan tried again, taking another step closer.

"I say STAY BACK!"

With that, Mercurial lunged forward in a manic burst of energy. His hand grew twice its normal sized and larger claws sprouted from the tips of his gloves. Beast Boy had noticed this change just in time to jump away from the attack so all that was cut was his costume. He looked down at the cuts in disbelief then back up at Mercurial. Any snappy quip he would have made was lost when he saw the change in the metamoroph's eyes and position. He was now crouched down into an attack pose and his eyes gave off a little of pure anger and fury with only a hint of the sadness remaining in them. Though still confused, Beast Boy knew what he had to do next.

"Alright dude, I didn't want to do this but…"

Beast Boy left the sentence unfinished as he morphed into a panther then charged his opponent. Much to his surprise, however, Mercurial didn't move an inch. Instead, he morphed himself, turning into a gigantic man in a black tank top and pants with a black and white mask, red eyes and a device attached to his right arm with a tube leading toward the back of his head. He effortlessly picked up the green panther and tossed it aside as if it were nothing. Using the panther's natural agility, Beast Boy flipped in mid-air and landed harmlessly on his four feet. He then morphed into a rhinoceros and again charged his now larger foe. As with before, Mercurial stood his ground, however, this time the task as much more difficult. He grabbed the rhino's horn and tried to push it back, but he overestimated his new forms abilities. The two shape shifters were soon locked in a struggle for dominance, with neither one willing to give ground.

Robin groaned as he blocked another blow from his opponent. He had used the momentum created when she swung him around to break free of her hold and soon found himself in a hard fought battle. Whoever this Strika girl was she was extremely talented in hand-to-hand combat and he been able to block almost every move he sent her way. That was not to say the he was no slouch either. Years of training under the famous, or infamous, Batman had taught him a variety of techniques that, when combined with his natural athleticism, made him a force to be reckoned with.

So as is usually the case when two highly skilled marital artists fight, they two quickly found themselves in a standstill. For each move that was used, the other had a counter for it. For each punch that was landed, two more missed. He furrowed his brow in frustration as he tried to think of a way to overcome her defenses. He could only think of one method, but for some odd reason he felt reluctant to use it this time. His own rather infamous competitive side wanted to try to beat her on just skill alone, but the logical part of his mind told him that he had to end the fight as quickly as he could to help his friends. With that in mind, he reached for a compartment on the back of his utility belt and pulled out his trusty bo staff. He extended it to full length then took a battle stance as he prepared to renew his attack. Much to his surprise, thought, Strika only seemed mildly amused at the sight of his weapon.

"Cut me off a switch son," she remarked, reaching a compartment on her own belt. "There's gonna be a whoopin'."

When her hand came forward, it held a small metal cylinder, which quickly extended into a staff nearly identical to Robin's. Seeing she had caught him off guard, she used the momentary distraction to lunge the staff forward in an attempt to jam the tip into his ribs. He regained his senses quickly enough to make a swipe with his own staff that succeeded in knocking hers off course. In the blink of an eye Strika repositioned her hands on the weapon and used the momentum to swing it upwards in an arch with the intention of striking Robin on the head. He stayed one-step ahead of her, however, and ducked the attack then lashed out with his own staff and succeeded in hitting her shins and knocking her off balance.

Her instincts taking over, Strika used the fall to her advantage. In one swift motion she threw her hand out to land palm first, push herself off the ground then perform a mid-air flip so that she landed in a perfect crouch while again facing Robin.

"Wow, you **are** good," she complimented.

"I studied with the best," Robin remarked with an unconscious smirk.

"I know," she replied before she used her staff to pole-vault to launch herself forward.

She flew through the air with her left leg outstretched in a flying kick position. Robin easily sidestepped the attack and swung his staff in an attempt to hit her mid-back as soon as she landed, but she blocked it by throwing her staff over her shoulder. She pulled down on the end she still had a hold of and pushed both weapons above the combatants' heads then suddenly dropped down into a crouch and gave Robin a hard jabbed in the ribs with the staff tip. She followed it up with an uppercut that sent the Boy Wonder crashing to the ground. She repositioned the weapon in the hands and brought it down hard to impale it through one of Robin's eyes. He rolled away from the attack then launched himself feet first towards her. She avoided the blow by bending over backwards so that he harmlessly flew just inches above her. After he landed both combatants quickly spun around and their bo staffs met with a loud "clang". The two struggled against one another for a moment until Strika suddenly titled her staff down. The unexpected maneuver caused Robin to lose his balance and fall forward. Strika quickly took advantage by running her staff forward again and jabbing him in the ribs. She followed it up by swing the staff upwards and smacking Robin in the face. He let out a groan of pain as he stumbled backwards. He stared at his opponent in a daze while he held onto his throbbing forehead. This girl was good, but he wasn't about to let himself be beat by her. He had to stop her and her team from hurting any of his teammates or any innocent people. So, no matter how much his injuries might have hurt he had to fight on.

When Cyborg recovered from the hit, the first thing he noticed was that he was now inside the Wayne Tech building. The second thing he noticed was all the security guards standing around him. He refused their offer to help them up and instead told them to leave the area immediately. When they began to protest, Cyborg bolted to his feet and glared them down. Before he could explain the situation, Beta zipped into the build and landed a hit square in the half machine's jaw. Again the force was enough to send him sailing across the large lobby to land directly on the front desk, smashing it in half. With that done, Beta then looked at the guards still standing around him.

"Alright, how's next?" he asked while he held up his fist.

The guards glanced nervously at each other for a moment.

"Man they don't pay me enough for this," one of them spoke up.

The other nodded in agreement then took off in different directions, intent on getting as far away from this madness as possible. Beta smirked as he watched them run. He would have liked nothing more than to take them all down one-by-one and listen to their pathetic pleas for mercy. But he had a job to do. Not that that wasn't going to be fun in itself. He would more than happy to show this obsolete pile of flesh and scrap who was in charge.

With his mind refocused on his goal, the super strong teen walked forward towards the prone Cyborg. He was intent on ending this fight quickly and then going out to see if there was anything he could do to help his own teammates. And if now, perhaps he **would** track down those guards. Unfortunately, his plans were cut short when he noticed that Cyborg had not only recovered but also launched a rather large piece of the desk at him. Without losing his stride he held up his left arm and hit the desk with his fist just before it hit him. The force further smashed the desk and Beta smiled as he spotted the Titan's surprised expression through the shower of splintered wood raining down upon him. He stopped his march to take in the moment.

"Well you're definitely the strong one of the group," Cyborg mused.

"Yeah. Just now catching onto that? I thought you're supposed to be the smart one," Beta scoffed.

"Actually I'm the tech guy. And technically, I'm about to whoop your butt!" the Titan shouted as he transformed his right arm into its sonic cannon mode and fired.

His opponent, however, nimbly jumped over the blast of blue and white energy and did a perfect 360 flip in mid-air so that he went into a drop kick position. Caught off guard by this action, Cyborg had no time to defend himself and caught Beta's boot squarely in his chest plate. The sound of crunching metal was heard a split second before Cyborg took another tumble towards the floor.

"Man, this is getting old," he muttered.

"It is, isn't it? Then maybe I should help speed things along," Beta remarked as he pulled down the right sleeve of his jacket.

Cyborg sent him a confused look at the gesture. His look quickly changed to one of intrigue when he noticed a set of lines on the other boy's forearm that made a perfect rectangle that started just below his wrist and ended just above his elbow. Beta sent him a vicious smirk in return before he lowered his arm by pointing it at the weakened teen. A second later the marked area rose an inch and slid forward to reveal a laser cannon housed in his arm. The transformation was completely by a small barrel sliding out and before Cyborg could react a beam of red energy raced towards him. The blow sent him knocked back so that he was right underneath a giant chandelier hanging high above the lobby. The next blast fired, cut cleanly through the chain holding the great lighting fixture. It fell to the floor with a great crash and Cyborg had just barely managed to roll out of its path. He glared at his opponent from the pillar he was currently behind.

"So are you like me?" he ventured.

"Ha! Don't insult me! The look is purely to blend in with your flesh bags! Underneath this shell I'm pure metal," Beta retorted.

"An android then. And one with a serious attitude."

"I can't help it if I'm just better than you and your half organic system. That's what slows you down. Keeps you weak."

"Now you just sound like Atlas."

"Again, don't insult me. I'm ten times better than that outdated, walking scrap heap."

"But you're just as easy to fool!" Cyborg shouted as he jumped out from behind the pillar and fired another blast from his sonic cannon.

Unfortunately, Beta jumped over the blast and several feet into the air. He rained down hellfire on the surprised Titan from his laser cannon, destroying the pillar and much of the tile floor around the half machine. He continued to fire even as he began to fall and pulled his left fist back in a striking position. He stopped firing just before he hit the ground and lashed out with the fist the second he did. He missed, however, when Cyborg back stepped the attack so that the floor took the brunt of the powerful blow. The tile cracked under the force of Beta's fist. Shrapnel and dust surrounded the artificial teenager while he recovered from his botched attack. He didn't have too long, though, as soon he found the end of Cyborg's sonic cannon right near his face. He gave it a sideways glance the in one quick motion, stood up from the mini-crater, pushed the cannon away then delivered a devastating punch to the Titan's already damaged chest. At the moment his fist connected, he also fired a shot from his own cannon, which only served to increase the power of the attack.

Cyborg couldn't help but let out a scream as he crashed through another wall of the Wayne Tech building and found himself outside once more. He crashed down hard into the ground and left a trail in the pavement as he skidded to a halt. He let out a soft groan as he staggered to his feet. While it was true he felt no real pain from the attacks, he did have sensors and circuits that could imitate the sensation and at the moment they were doing a fine job of it. Fortunately, he was able to push it aside much easier then normal humans. He took a step out of the small trench, but didn't get farther than that before something implanted itself in his damage chest plate. He looked down to find a thin wire sticking out of the point of impact. He traced it back to Beta who stood there with his left arm held straight out and the rest of the wire disappearing into his jacket's sleeve. Before Cyborg could say or do anything surge of electricity went through him. At this point there was no turning off the pain. His body twisted and contorted as the electricity raced through his body, overloading his circuits and frying the few muscles and tendons he had left. He let out the first pure scream of agony he had in a long time as the warning messages flashed in front of his optic sensor.

**WARING! WARING! Systems overloading! Emergency shutdown initiated!**

Those were the last words Cyborg heard, and saw, before his systems completely shut down. He fell face first onto the ground in an undignified heap. Beta let out a small chuckle as he retracted his wire back into the small slot in his wrist from wince it came.

"Booyah, bitch," he remarked to his fallen foe.

While battles continued to rage down below, on the rooftop adjacent from the Wayne Tech building, the two telekinetics were still absorbed in their own fight. It started simply as a battle to test the other's skills by tossing around the junk that littered the rooftop, which in itself seemed a little too convenient to Raven, but quickly turned into a battle of wills. The longer it went on, the more Raven couldn't help but feel there was more to the choice of this particular building than just closeness to their target. The objects scattered around the rooftop made perfect weapons a seasoned telekinetic, which this girl most obviously was as evidenced by her calm stance. Despite herself, this put Raven on edge. If this girl could do all that when she was relaxed, then what could she do if she was really trying? Raven wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know that answer.

Unfortunately, part of that answer came speeding towards her in the form of a large crate. She lashed out at it with a whip of translucent black energy that cut it clean in half and caused them to fall harmlessly on either side of her. A barrage of flowerpots, however, immediately followed that attack, from the small garden sitting in a corner of the roof. She quickly threw up another shield to protect herself and was surprised to note that she actually took a step backwards. This was the other problem in letting the fight drag. It seemed the longer it went on, the weaker she was getting. She hadn't wanted to admit it at first, but now there was no denying it. She had been on the defensive almost since the fight started and was quickly losing ground. She needed to end this fight soon, and the best way she could think of was to strengthen her powers with her usual chant. Unfortunately, that meant dropping her shield to gather her energy but it seemed her opponent didn't want to give her that luxury. To buy her that time, Raven lashed out with her powers, bathing part of the rooftop in her black aura. The darkness slid forward under Tekka's feet then ripped the concrete out from under her, causing her to fall backwards. Raven quickly dropped her shield and began her chant.

"Azerath…Metrion…Zin-hmph!" she was cut off when a rag fell into her open mouth and tied itself around the back of her head.

She fell to her knees amidst muffed gags as her hands pulled back her hood and reached frantically for the knot. After a bit of stumbling, she was finally able to untie it and threw the damp rag down, coughing and spitting loudly to try get the awful taste out of her mouth.

"Don't even want to think about where that's been," she muttered

She was brought back into the fight when she heard a scream above her and looked up to see Tekka diving down towards her. She jumped to her feet and erected a shield right before the dark haired girl would have landed on her. To Raven's surprise; however, Tekka was not repelled by the shield but instead landed on top of it safely. She then drew her right fist back and began to pound on it mercilessly. Again, Raven was surprised, this time at just how painful the blows seemed to be to her, or at least her mind. Although she had developed, a strong mental barrier from the various battles the Titans had been in over their short years as a team, it still took a decent amount of effort on her part to keep up her shields as they were directly linked to her mind. It was a strain that had gotten easier with time, but the punches the other girl was throwing seemed stronger than they should have been, more focused. It was like something in her attacks was disrupting the very force of her shield.

That something was a small force field that encased Tekka's fist. It was a technique she had learned sometime ago as a way of breaking through other telekinetics' defenses. While she didn't like using it in such a burnt manner, she knew it was the only way past Raven's shield at the moment. Despite the gothic girl's focus and determination, Tekka knew from personal experience that it was a strain to keep a shield up for an extended amount of time, especially if an attack focused on a specific part of the barrier. Of course adding another psychic shield into the mix only made things worse, which was exactly what Tekka was counting on. She knew eventually the strain would be too much and Raven's shield would crack. It didn't have to be much; just a tiny one was all she needed really.

There it was. She could see it in her mind's eye, a very small crack forming within the black translucent shield. After another series of powerful blows, it grew large enough for her to move onto the next phase of her plan. She continued her hitting to keep Raven's mind occupied while the main portion of her mind focused on creating a small physic blast. If one where able to see it, then they would see something no bigger than a needle shoot out from Tekka's forehead, through the crack in the shield, pass through Raven's chakram and pierce her mind.

Raven let out an ear-splitting scream at the pain. It felt like someone had taken a searing hot poker and stabbed her directly in the pain receptors of her brain. She tried to keep her focus to keep her shield up, but the pain was just too much. With one final scream, the barrier fell and a new sensation of pain quickly filled Raven's world. This one coming from Tekka's fist as it connected with her jaw. There was a surprising amount of strength behind it, so much in fact, that it sent her flying off the roof. As she sailed over the edge, her hand lashed out and grabbed the ledge just in time. Unfortunately, the forceful stopped caused her to swing backwards and slam hard into the stone building. She groaned as the pain from her head, cheek and now side threatened to overcome her.

_Pull it together Raven, _she told herself mentally. _You've dealt with a lot worse than this. Overcome your pain and fight back. If you can't fight her with your powers then you'll have to do it the old fashion way._

She let out a calming breath and took a moment to let her powers heal herself. Once she cleared of her pain and anxiety, she could plan her counteract. While she didn't particularly care for hand-to-hand combat, it did seem the only way she would gain an advantage in this fight. As much as she was loath to admit it, it seemed this Tekka girl was a stronger telekinetic than she was. Although the question as to just HOW exactly that was possible was something, she planned to pursue later. For the moment, she concentrated on sensing her opponent's movements. She could hear Tekka's footsteps approaching the ledge.

_Just a few more and…NOW!_

With that mental cry, Raven shot herself upwards with her free arm up and hand balled into a fist. It connected neatly with the Tekka's chin in the form of a mean uppercut. The blue leather clag girl crashed down onto the floor of the roof hard while Raven landed calmly in front of her. Tekka growled when she opened her eyes to see the gothic girl standing over her and in a flash spun around onto her stomach then spun around again to deliver a sweep kick that knocked the other girl down as well. She then lashed out with her powers by tying a chain attached to a large weight around Raven's legs then sent it sailing over the edge. Reacting on instinct, Raven lashed out with a black tendril that ensnared Tekka's left leg and dragged her down with the sorceress. Both girls screamed as the plummeted into the darkened ally below and even with their used of shields, the impact was still a devastating one.

Silence filled the alleyway for several seconds before Raven let out a soft groan as she slowly pulled herself up into a sitting position. Thankfully, nothing save the pavement seemed broken. She used her powers to snap the chain around her legs and was about to check to see if Tekka had survived as well when the girl made herself known. She looked as banged up and worn out as Raven herself, but unlike her, Tekka still looked ready to fight. The grey skinned Titan let out a small curse under her breath and tried to stand to fight but before she could, her opponent raised her arms and slammed her hands together. The significance of this motion came to Raven in the form of two full, metal trashcans slammed into her either side of her head at once. When the fell to the ground, she let out a small whimper before she followed suit.

"About time," Tekka muttered as she stumbled to her feet.

She began to stagger out of the alleyway, clutching her left arm as she did so. While it didn't seem like she had broken anything, there was still the possibility that she had sprained it. Regardless, it still hurt and she wanted to make the witch pay. Though she couldn't kill her, she could still humiliate her. So, just as she passed over the unconscious Raven, she mentally lifted up a nearby dumpster and then proceeded to empty the contents onto her prone form. She set the object down quietly then went to see if she could provide assistance to her team, leaving Raven alone and covered in garbage.

Beast Boy always hated to admit it, especially with how frequently it happened to him, but he was in trouble. In truth, he had never really fought against that many other shape shifters. The only two that came close that he could remember were Adonis and Plasmus. Even then, Adonis had only turned into a werebeast that he had been able to defeat once he came to his senses and Plasmus…well Plasmus was more of a goo monster that just shot out more goo and sometimes changed shape, so maybe he didn't really count after all. Still the fact remained that he was unfamiliar with fighting against someone with the same powers. He was use to catching his opponents off guard with his morphing, but for every form he took it, seemed Mercurial had one that could effectively counter it.

Even worse, he could control his body much more than just changing into other people. He could morph part of his body into mallets and knives or any other number of blunt or sharp objects that could do serious harm to Beast Boy's person. Now, he seemed to be combining the two powers. He had taken the form of a man in a black leather body suit with a few yellow outlined strips on it, not to mention some of the weirdest hair Beast Boy had ever seen. The most alarming features, however, were the twin sets of three metal claws springing from in between his fingers. Beast Boy had taken on the shape of spider monkey earlier in the fight and was now bouncing around to avoid being slashed to ribbons by the sharp claws.

Beast Boy did his best when he saw Mercurial's claws; he transformed and got out of the way. Sometimes it really sucked being able to only transform into animals. With each dodge of the claws, he would try a different animal, a bird, a cat, a mountain lion, the monstrous beast he had once turned into, anything he could think of to gain an advantage, but nothing seemed to work. The green boy was desperate as he found himself backed against a stonewall; if he didn't act fast he was going to be shiskabobbed. Waiting until the last second, he transformed himself into a small dog and jumped into the air to avoid what would have been a killing blow.

As he fell to the ground, he noticed that the other boy was trapped. Grinning, Beast Boy transformed into a Kangaroo, balanced on his tail and kicked Mercurial as hard as he could, sending him flying a good ten feet away from him. Now with some distance between them and time to think, Beast Boy took the opportunity to change into a rather large bull. He stomped his hoof and let out a snort before he charged the other boy's prone form.

His charge was soon slowed though when, right before his eyes, the form of the clawed man shrank into that of a young girl around Beast Boy's age. In truth it had been almost a year since the changeling had last her but he would had recognized her anywhere. The long, blond hair, the trademark black shirt with the in-circled yellow "T" on it, the yellow shorts, her boots, gloves all of the costume was the same. Most importantly, though he could see her large, deep blue eyes staring at him, filled with the same sense of worry and confusing they had been since the last time he saw her.

"Beast Boy, don't!" she pleaded.

His charge declined even faster to just a steady walk and then into a slow careful pace until he stopped just in front of her, having already unconsciously morphed back into his human form. He stared at her in disbelief. In the back of his mind, he knew that this version of his friend was a fake, that the real girl he knew was still underneath the city trapped within the form of a statue, but at the moment, he was ready to believe it was actually her come back to him.

"Terra?" he asked cautiously.

The answer destroyed all of his hopes in one foul instant. Immediately, the girl bolted to her feet and her form changed once again. This time it was of a man in a bright blue body suit with a cape bellowing behind him, a mask that looked like it was painted on and very bright yellow hair that was outrageously spiked. Like the clawed man, this new form carried one distinct feature with it, that being his right hand was about five times the size of a normal hand. It was that very hand that struck out and struck Beast Boy across the face, sending him flying backwards and knocking him out instantly. His unconscious body skidded a couple of times over the pavement before it finally landed with him face down.

His mission accomplished, Mercurial reverted to his true form and stared at the green boy's form. Although he was still ready for more, he sincerely hoped that the fight was over.

"Just, please stay down," he advised the unconscious body. When there was no movement, he nodded somewhat unsteadily. "There. Th-that's good."

High above the remaining fight on the street, another one in the air continued to heat up, literally. Pyra had sent many fireballs Starfire's way, causing the Tamaranian to either avoid or counter them with her starbolts. When the opportunity had presented itself, she returned the favor but it seemed the fire wielder was just as competent at flight as herself, as Pyra had been able to avoid all the blasts that had been sent her way. Adding to Starfire's troubles was the fact that while she try to maneuver her attacks so they wouldn't cause any damage to buildings or any unlucky civilians, the other red head had no such reservations. In fact, many of her attacks her blatantly aimed to hit the buildings should they missed their target, which in many cases caused Starfire to not only have avoid them but also try to extinguish them before they could hurt anything or anyone.

Unfortunately, this put Starfire as a great disadvantage, one that Pyra was more than happy to exploit. With a wicked grin plastered on her face, she created a subtle trail with her fireballs that slowly moved Starfire right where she wanted her.

"Come on! Is that all you've got!" she mocked.

"I shall show you I've 'got'," Starfire replied as she charged up a pair of starbolts.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance to use them as Pyra sent a large flame wall at her that completely engulfed the alien princess and sent her crashing through a large window in the office building behind her. After the flames receded, she rolled across the carpeted floor in a maneuver Robin had shown her to extinguish fire. When she was certain any parts of her clothes that might have been on fire were out, she stood up and took stock of herself. For the most part, she remained unharmed thanks to her tough Tamaranian skin. Being from a warrior race had naturally made her body resilient to most minor injuries and a fair amount of large ones. Added to that, the fact her people could survive the harshness of space unprotected resulted in the fire actually causing very little damage to her. She had a few burn marks on her but those would heal soon enough and surprisingly her clothes only seemed slightly singed, as was her hair by the smell filling her nose. She growled a bit and her eyes glowed a dangerous green. It was not because of the damage to her clothes or hair, she had never been as vain about her appearance as her sister, but due more to the fact that the blow was meant to seriously injure her and her warrior's pride would NOT let that go unpunished.

Her eyes narrowed slightly when she spotted her opponent again and within the blink of an eye she was shot out of the building through the window she had just shattered and slammed into Pyra with all the subtly of a locomotive. The force sent to the two red headed warriors crashing into the side of the opposite building, though Pyra took the brunt of the impact. She had almost no time to recover as Starfire immediately began to pound her with a barrage of punches.

After several minutes or second, she wasn't sure which one, Pyra was finally able to lift up her left hand to catch Starfire's fist before it could collide with her body again. Finally having an advantage, she smile again then began to increase the heat around the fist she holding. As she did, she covered her other fist in flame and began to return the favor by hitting the other girl repeatedly in the stomach and face all while she continued to increase the heat in her other hand. Slowly, but surely it continued to increase until it was finally enough to effect Starfire's touch skin. The alien girl grit her teeth to keep from screaming out, as she would not let her attacker have that satisfaction. Not that it mattered to Pyra that much anyway, as after the novelty of beating up on her wore down, she pushed herself away from the building, the grabbed Starfire's wrist as well and spun her around to launch her towards the ground.

Still in a daze and too much pain to recover, Starfire hit the sidewalk like a rock. She groaned forced her eyes open just in time to see Pyra rocketing towards her, both fists covered in flames and a malicious gleam in her eye. Thinking quickly, she fired off a pair of eye blasts that hit Pyra directly in the chest and sent her into a wide arch before she crashed to the ground as well.

"Damn, I forgot about those," she muttered as she clutched the wound.

Like herself, Starfire was quick to press the attack and tried to take her down with a dive bomb drop kick. Pyra, however, recovered quickly enough to not only stand but also catch the outstretched foot. She grabbed it firmly with both hands and again began to increased the heat around them, this time to a much hotter degree and much faster. As with before, it had taken awhile for Starfire to actually feel the pain, but when it did hit her it was doubled, as it was not just the heat from Pyra's hands attacking her foot but also the melted rubber of her boots searing her skin. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but let out a cry of pain this time, which the fire wielder took great pleasure in hearing. Once her fun was done, Pyra slammed the alien girl onto the pavement again, this time with enough force to crack it and create an inch deep hole. Not wanting to take chances, she hovered above her fallen opponent and delivered a brutal haymaker to Starfire's forehead and knocking the girl out cold.

More than just letting her vent her pain, Starfire's scream also served to be a distraction to the last remaining Titan. When Robin had heard the cry, he automatically turned his head towards the source, just in time to see Starfire get laid out by Pyra's last punch.

"Starfire!" he cried out in concern.

Unfortunately, this action caused him to lose track of his own battle, only to be brought back to it when he heard the sound of metal sliding against metal. He glanced back at Strika to find a slightly curved blade now sticking out of the top of her bo staff. He jumped back just as she took a swipe at him and though he had been able to miss a fatal blow, she had still managed to slice open his shirt and cut into his skin. He held the wound as a thin line of blood trickled down his chest then looked up at Strika, who seemed to take as much enjoyment in hurting others as her teammates did. Before he could renew his attack, she reached into her utility belt and produced three small blades, each one sticking out from between her fingers. Although she had tossed them in rapid succession, Robin was easily able to avoid them and they stuck harmlessly in the pavement behind him.

"You missed," he said with a smirk, despite himself.

"Guess again," Strika said, nodding her head towards the blades.

Hesitantly, the Boy Wonder did as she said and saw red, blinking lights handles of all three blades. His eyes widened in shock as to the implications of this; they were not just blades, they were bombs as well. Before he could even think to move the three mini-explosives when off with enough force to throw him forward, right towards Strika's waiting blade. He had to let his body go limp when the explosion hit him so as to minimize the damage to his person. Unfortunately, that meant he had no time to recover and avoid being impaled. He could do nothing but prepare himself for the sensation of the blade cutting through his skin and ravage his internal organs, most likely his heart. Then…then it would be all over. He would have failed everyone.

To his great surprise, however, Strika retracted the blade at the last second and simply jammed the now blunt end of the staff into his chest, opening his earlier wound slightly and cracking at least one of his ribs. She then used his momentum to swing him over her head and down into the hard, unforgiving street. He let out a grunt of pain at the feeling of his back coming into contact with the rough road. The last thing he remembered seeing through his blurred vision was Strika standing triumphantly over him for a second before she bent down to whisper into his ear.

"Another time," she breathed hotly towards him.

That was the last thing Robin the Boy Wonder remembered before the darkness over took him.

**To Be Continued… **

Author's Notes: Well that was an exciting chapter, wasn't it? Not to toot my own horn, but I do think some of the fight scenes came out rather well and I personally would love to see them animated, but then again wouldn't all us fanfic authors love to see that? Still, some of them had a real good quality to them that only improved when I was forced to rewrite them. Such as the Cyborg/Beta fight which in the version I actually explained what happened to the guards. Kinda forgot about them in the earlier draft, heh. Though I do think I lost a little bit of the flow in the early part of the Strika/Robin fight, but that would just be me being hard on myself. Oh well. Look for some questions to be answered in the next chapter as well as more to be raised.

Oh and if anyone wants more information on the "Thrash incident" then check out my previous Titans fic "Songbird". It's not crucial, but it couldn't hurt, right?

Review Responses:

Rurouni Tyriel: That's just what I WANTED you to think! Glad someone went along that line of thought. Actually I had originally toyed with the idea of them being appearing more heroic go a little longer, but that would have ruined the element of surprise they had. That was the point of this first encounter, to catch the Titans off guard. Which as you can see they clearly did. As for who they may be working for…well that would just giving things away now, wouldn't it?

Knotz: Well I'm glad you liked it. Hopefully you'll find this chapter just as enjoyable. Hopefully you'll FIND this chapter. The bury factor on this site is horrible. OH and I'll see about checking out your fic when I can but I make no promises as I can be extremely absentminded at time.

GDeacur: Well I'm glad I could rock your world. As I told Kntoz I hope you enjoyed this chapter too as well as those coming up.

Sleeping Bag: Thanks for the review! Wasn't sure when you'd get to it or not. Minor spelling errors are always a pain, even for my beta reader. Oh well, least it's not too bad, right? And I can see your point about the descriptions, as they did give me problems in writing the chapter as well. It's like you said though, I'm thinking a visual manner and I wanted to do it in a pan around kind way that just doesn't translate well into writing. Course one of the flaws in my writing has always been my big description dumps. Just one of the things I need to work on to improve my writing. Still I do think my descript of Pyra was one of the best I've ever done. It just fit the character so well. And I think the text box has gotten smaller.


	3. So Many Questions, So Few Answers

_Disclaimer: Teen Titans is owned by DC Comics and WB as well as many other people, just not me. I do, however own all original characters and therefore they cannot be used without my express permission._

**New Players on the Stage**

**Chapter 3: So Many Questions, So Few Answers**

The ride back to Titans Towers was an unusually quiet one. It was quite an unusual situation they found themselves in. It was not so much the defeat that bothered them, as they had lost a few battles in the past, but rather they WAY they were defeated. A group that they had never met until now just showed up and completely overpowered them and left them laying the middle of the street. When they had come to, not only was this Terror Sect group gone, but also the H.I.V.E. students and the device they were trying to steal. Although who actually got it, the Titans couldn't be sure.

One thing they were sure of though was the looks on the people's faces in the crowd that had formed. The looks of confusion and disappointment were hard to miss. That day the city had seen its mighty heroes defeated. Broken. Humiliated. It left those present with feelings of uncertainty and a loss of confidence in their champions. That hurt the Titans more than their wounds did. Ever since they had established themselves in Jump City, they made an unspoken promise to its citizens to protect them from the things the police couldn't. So in turn the people came to expect this from them and for the most part the accomplished that goal. There was only one time when they had failed to keep their promise. A time…none of them liked to talk about.

It took them many months to rebuild the public's confidence in them after that incident and to have it stripped away from them again in mere minutes was discouraging to say the least. It left them with not only wounds to their bodies and prides but with many questions as well. Who was this new group? Where did they come from? Did they want something else besides the Titan's complete humiliation? Most importantly, when would they be back?

These questions filled the Titan's minds even after they reached the Tower. It created an uneasy silence among them as they tended to their wounds. Being the closest thing the team had to a medic, Raven did her best to heal her friends. Fortunately, most of the bruises looked worse than they actually were. She only had to heal Robin's cracked ribs as he had already wrapped the chest wound himself. Cyborg simply ran a diagnostic on himself to see how much damage the electric surge had actually done. Beast Boy could have been considered the lucky one as he walked away with only minor cuts and bruises.

That left Starfire. She received the most painful injuries. While the burns on her hands were taken care of quickly enough, her foot was another matter all together. Because of the time elapsed from their defeat, to their revival and back to the Tower, the heated rubber of her boot had time to cool and therefore stick to her skin. They had cut the boot open just to peel it off of her. To her credit, she didn't cry out once during the procedure, though Raven did hear her mutter a few choice Tamaranian words that didn't sound very friendly. Once she removed what she could, Raven used her powers to remove the remaining pieces of rubber with her powers as well as heal the injured foot as best she could. Unfortunately, even she could do so much and the wounds became regulated to second-degree burns that would have to heal naturally. She applied some anti-burn ointment to help then carefully began to wrap Starfire's foot.

She did this as the others continued their practice of silent sulking and reflection. For most of the team, that meant sitting on the half circle couch while letting their wounds heal. Robin, however, paced the room back and forth in spite of his injuries. He knew he should have joined his friends and let his wounds set somewhat before being active again, but he just couldn't. It was a habit he picked up somewhere along the line, whether from his mentor or something he come up with himself, but either way if he didn't have a hard piece of evidence in front of him to study, he would usually end up pacing around as his mind tried to reach a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, there were just too many questions about this situation that he couldn't answer. There was only one answer he could come up with at the moment. The answer to a question that, not surprisingly, Beast Boy was the first to ask.

"Sooo…what was that all about anyway?" the changeling spoke up.

"It was a message," Robin answered definitely.

"What? They never heard of e-mail?"

"Not that kind of message. They wanted to show us what they could do. Let us know how much they could hurt us."

"Well I definitely got THAT message loud and clear. I mean we haven't been beaten that badly since…" Beast Boy let the sentence hang, afraid of what might happen if he completed it.

"Terra," Raven said flatly.

Another silence fell upon the group. In truth, they had all been thinking the same thing, but just like Beast Boy, none of them really wanted to say it. For some reason, saying seemed to make it more real, more hurtful. It dredged up painful memories for all, especially Beast Boy. He had been closer to her than any of them, and thinking about her always brought up mixed emotions in him. It didn't help that he had seen her, or rather someone taking her form, during the battle. He knew in the back of his mind that it really wasn't her, but at the time, he believed it. It looked exactly like her. Now just the physical appearance, but also the look in her eyes. That same lost, pleading look that he had seen in her eyes the last time he seen her alive. It was unbelievable. Beast Boy shook his head to clear those thoughts and get himself back in the game. As per his luck, however, just when he was ready to focus on the task at hand, everyone else seemed to be preoccupied.

"Well that's not fair," he muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The others ignored the remark as they **were** preoccupied with there own thoughts. The mention of Terra not only dredged up bad memories, but also bad thoughts in regards to the new villains.

"You…do not think…" Starfire started hesitantly.

"That Slade's behind this 'Terror Sect' group?" Robin finished with a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Don't start this again Robin," Cyborg warned him. "You remember what happened the last time you thought Slade was alive."

"He was playing with my head. He still could be."

"Dude like Cyborg said, he fell into lava! Who's gonna survive that?" Beast Boy asked.

"Maybe we only saw what he wanted us to see. He's used robot doubles before. It could have easily been one of them we saw fall into the lava. This is what he could have been doing all this time, training this new team of his."

"Robin please," Starfire pleaded, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Do not skip to answers."

"Uh…that's jump to conclusions Starfire," Raven corrected.

"Yes, thank you," she nodded before she turned her attention back to Robin. "You made peace with yourself that Slade was dead. Why can you not believe that now?"

"But who else would know us so well?" Robin asked.

"Someone else that's been watching us," Raven countered. "It's not out of the realm possibilities."

"She's right. As many times as we're shown on the news and in the papers, some other wacko is bound to take interest in us," Cyborg added.

"Plus it's not like our fights are taking place in the desert," Beast Boy chimed in.

"See? There are lots of ways someone could know us," Starfire replied in her usual cheerful tone.

Robin sighed as he turned this information over in his head. He knew they all have valid points, but he'd also seen far too many supposedly dead villains return in his time to simply let go of the idea that Slade was back. Still he didn't want to worry them and judging by their reactions, he was doing that right now. He resolved to look into the Slade connection later, when he was by himself so that he wouldn't give his friends any more grief.

"Regardless of **who** it may be, I think it's safe to assume **someone** brought them together," Raven spoke as she finished bandaging Starfire's foot and stood up. "A marital artist, a shape shifter, a telekinetic, an android and a pryokentic. Maybe the last two don't match up exactly but its close enough. Pretty big coincidence that they all just happened to meet up and form a team, isn't it?"

"Agreed," Robin said then turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Cyborg asked.

"To do some work on the case. You guys can rest though. Just keep an eye on any news reports that may pop up about this Terror Sect."

Before any of the Titans could offer protest, Robin disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. They looked around at each other for a moment before Raven began to leave as well.

"Now where are YOU going?" Cyborg asked again, sounding a little annoyed.

"We're done here and I need a shower in the worst possible way," she remarked and gave a slight shudder at thought of what could be covering her clothes.

Robin sat back in his chair and stared up at the large computer screen in front of him, fingers tented and head tilted forward. Displayed on the screen were profile shots of most of the Titans adversaries and their currently known status.

Slade-Deceased; Brother Blood-Captured; H.I.V.E. Trio-Active; Red-X-Active; Mad Mod-Captured; Mumbo Jumbo-Captured; Johnny Rancid-Active; Killer Moth-Active; Kitten-Active; Fang-Captured; Kwiz Kid-Active; Prof. Chang-Active; Control Freak-Captured; Adonis-Captured; Blackfire-Unknown; Dr. Light-Captured; Cinderblock-Active; Plasmus-Captured; Overload-Active; Punk Rocket-Captured; Thrash-Captured

Robin stared at each of the panels marked "active" intently, though he didn't completely rule out those who were captured. He knew all too well that some criminals were still able to run their plans even within the confines of their cell. Considering this fact still didn't help narrow down a suspect though. Brother Blood was the most likely suspect, but quick call to Titans East confirmed that not only was he still in jail, but also kept heavily sedated and depowered so that he couldn't use his hypnotic powers. In fact, the only real trouble they seemed to be encountering was a motorcycle gang.

The only other person he could think of right away that would have the resources to create and train this team was Mad Mod. That didn't fit his profile though. It just wasn't…crazy enough. No one else stood out though. Maybe Kwiz Kid, as he proved himself to be quite resourceful in their last encounter and it did leave everyone with questions that would fit his M.O. However, the only reason he chose to confront the Titans was to impress Kitten, though Robin really couldn't imagine why. Still, he was the most likely suspect at this point.

Even so, something kept nagging at the back of Robin's mind. It still didn't feel quite right. He looked over the roster of the Titan's villains more closely, trying to find someone who was more likely to be controlling Terror Sect. As he did, he took a closer look at the last two entries: Punk Rocket and Thrash. Not that he suspected either of those two of being criminal masterminds; he was just taken aback at how similar they were.

_The wackos are getting redundant, _He thought with a sly grin.

It faded, however, as his eye slowly drifted upward towards the person he truly though was responsible for the Titan's latest misfortune: Slade. He drew his gaze past the picture to the glowing red word stretched across it: deceased. Slade was dead. Logically, he knew this. The others were right; there was no way he could have survived the fall into the lava bath. Even if he did, he would have made his move by now. At the very least, he would have announced his presence. So, with all these factors adding up to conclusion that the masked psychopath was gone, why couldn't Robin still let it go?

He stared at the screen a moment longer before he clicked it off. Before he could move on with this case, he had put the past behind him and he knew just the place to start.

Despite being located in one of the most advanced buildings in the city, the basement of Titan's Tower was not much different from the basement in a normal house. It was dark, dusty, and in some places dank. It was also the storage space for things they didn't really use or had nowhere else to put. Mostly it was full of boxes containing old newspaper articles about their adventures, lots of fan mail, some of Cyborg's early projects that he would finish "some day", and a few things from closed cases that they couldn't fit in the evidence room.

It was the contents of one of those boxes that brought Robin down here. Fighting off the feeling of déjà vu, pulled down the box marked "Slade" from its resting place atop the small wall of boxes in a corner of the room. He placed it down on the ground and gently removed the top to reveal the many items of Slade's he had collected over their battles. The prize of the box being, of course, one of Slade's broken masks he had acquired. He stared at it intensely for a moment. Once again, thoughts of just how Slade might have survived the fall and returned to plague them again ran through his mind. His eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly reached for the mask. Remembering what happened last time, he covered his mouth and nose with his cape before he picked up the offending object and held it close to his face.

"Robin?" a quite, concern voice asked.

Taken by surprise, the Boy Wonder instinctively jumped up into a battle stance. He relaxed when he saw it was only Starfire then quickly hid the broken mask behind his back.

"Starfire? What are you doing down here?" he asked as notice the crutch tucked under

her right arm. "You should be resting."

"As should you," she replied intently. "Your wounds have not had proper time to heal either."

He subconsciously clutched at his chest. "I'm fine, really."

"Then what are **you** doing down here?" she asked as she tried to peek behind his back.

"I…I don't know really. Finding piece of mind I guess." He relented and held Slade's mask out for her to see. "Holding the mask, seeing all this stuff boxed up, it just helps make the point clear that…"

"Slade is dead."

"Yeah. I knew he is. You and the others are right he couldn't have survived. I just don't know why I can't let it go."

"When I was very little, Galfore told me something that I have always remembered. He said that we never forget those who make an impact on our lives, for better or for worse. I believe that is why you cannot let Slade go. Whatever he may have done, he impacted our lives in many ways."

"Mostly for the worse," Robin muttered bitterly. "But you're right, I don't think I'll ever really be able to let go of what he did. That doesn't mean I have to let him completely dominate my life though. I'm going to accept the fact that he's dead and move on to solving who's really pulling Terror Sect's strings."

Starfire smiled and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "And we will be there to help you."

Robin smiled back at her and gave a small nod. If there was ever any positive impact Slade made on their lives it was strengthening their bonds and knowing that they would always be there for each other.

Strika stood within the doorway of the darkened room. The only true light came from the large video screen on the far right wall, which currently replayed the battle she and her group fought against the Titans just hours ago. Despite the illumination, the figure watching the tape remained mostly in shadows. In fact, the only feature she could make out was his mask, which was reflecting the image on the screen. The both stayed silent as the fight continued to play out once again. When the playback came to an end, the screen when blue and the figure finally spoke up.

"Impressive," he stated.

"Thank you sir," Strika replied as she gave a slight bow.

"I see you took out the H.I.V.E. students rather easily. Their standards must be falling of those three are their top students. Still, they're meaningless in the end. Now, about the Titans. What did you notice while in battle and while watching the play back?"

"They were a little tougher than we anticipated but nothing we couldn't handle. Also, Pyra's arrogance caused her to be caught off guard momentarily. I'm trying to work on her with it, but…you know how she can be."

"Indeed. But I'm sure given time she'll be able to control her…fiery temper if you'll pardon the pun," he said with a slight hint of humor to his voice. "Now, is there anything else you noticed?"

"Mercurial. While it didn't have an adverse effect on this battle, his unwillingness to fight could put us in danger later on. Again, I'm trying to work on it with him but he's hard to reach. It's just so…I don't know how to describe it."

"But **I** know what you're trying to say. I know it can be difficult but keep at it. Don't push him of course, but make sure he realizes that it would be in all our best interests if he would give more to the team."

"Of course, sir," Strika nodded.

"Speaking of the team, where are they?"

"They're in the lounge relaxing."

"Then go join them. You earned your victory celebration as much as they have. I'll check in on you in a moment after I've inspected the device."

The masked blonde gave a slight bow before she turned and exited the room. As she walked through the unassuming hallway, she thought back on the fight once again. She picked out certain things she wanted to go over with each individual team member later as well as any injuries the Titans might have substance for use in a future battle. One that was sure to come much sooner than later, she suspected. But she would deal with that when the time came. For now, she intended to take her leader's advice and relax with the rest of the team.

She entered the living room/lounge and took stalk of the situation before announcing her presence. It was a large room with a widescreen TV against the far wall. Near the middle of the room sat a full-length couch with two recliner chairs on either side, each sitting on a rotating base to turn from the TV to the coffee table placed in-between them should the situation call for it. On the right wall stood a small gaming table and adjacent to it tucked in the left corner of the room was a small kitchenette/dining area used mostly for snacks and such.

She focused her attention from the layout of the room to the people in the room, expecting where each of them sat. Pyra and Beta took over the couch and sat rather close to each other, which seemed to be a usual occurrence lately. She would have to look into that later. Tekka sat in one of the recliners with her legs tucked underneath while she stared intently at a crossword puzzle, the eraser end of a pencil resting on her lips. That came as no surprise, since the telekinetic was usually working on some kind of brainteaser in her off time. Also not surprising was that Mercurial was sitting away from the group at the gamming table, rocking slightly in the chair. Despite the fact that he seemed to off in his own little world, he was the first of them to notice her.

"Strika!" he cried out in a mixture of surprise and joy.

Naturally, this caused the others to turn toward her as well.

"So the boss lady finally returns," Pyra remarked. "What's the word from above?"

"Yes. D-did we do go?" Mercurial asked.

"Yes we did. There are few issues to work out but overall we did a great job beating the Titans," Strika commended.

"Beating them? Hell, we smoked 'em!" Pyra shouted, emphasizing her point by producing a puff of smoke with her hand.

"Especially that Cyborg. Showing once again how inferior organics are to true mechanical beings," Beta added with a smirk. One that quickly faded when he noticed three angry females staring at him. "Present company excluded of course."

"Of course," Tekka muttered before she went back to her crossword. "'Three letter word for candy'. That's easy, PEZ."

"Wait you actually heard that!" Pyra said in mock surprise. "Brain girl actually came out of her world of puzzles and teasers to get involved with us lesser beings! The world must be coming to an end!"

"Yes I did talk and now I'm going back to ignoring you."

"Oh really? Well try to ignore this!"

With that, the flame wielder lunged forward and in one swift motion grabbed the paper from Tekka's hand before she landed perfectly in the middle of the room.

"Hey, give that back!" the other girl shouted as she bolted out of the chair.

"Make me," Pyra taunted.

"I really don't think you want me to."

"What's the matter? Scared? Come on; hit me with your best shot."

"You asked for it," Tekka smirked.

Before she knew it, Pyra found herself floating above the floor without the benefits of her powers. She thrashed around a bit before she noticed the smirk on Tekka's face and the causal motion of her hand.

"Is this it? Seriously I was expecting something a little more…I dunno…threatening," the red hair scoffed.

"I could also erect a physic shield that would make it impossible for you to use your flames without using up all the oxygen around in," Tekka warned.

"Is that so? Well could you do it before I lit THIS on fire?" Pyra asked, holding a lit finger up to the crossword."

"DON'T!"

"That's enough!" Strika called out, trying to bring order to the situation. "Tekka let her down, Pyra give her back the crossword. It's bad enough we have to worry about fighting the Titans without fighting each other as well."

The two muttered something intangible under their breaths then complied with their leader's wishes. Pyra did hand back the puzzle but not before yanking the pencil out of Tekka's hand and writing something down. When she got it back, the black haired girl look at what was written and to her surprise found it to be the answer to a question that had been troubling her for awhile. Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing at the flamethrower.

"I could have gotten that," she said.

"Sure you would have," Pyra smirked as he fell back down onto the couch.

"Good. Now as I was saying," Strika spoke up, drawing the attention back to her. "We did well against the Titans this time but we also gave away our surprise. They know who we are now and what we can do, so they're going to be ready for us next time. That means they're going to step up their game, which of course means we have to keep ours up too."

"I agree," a new voice spoke.

This time it was Strika's turn to face the newcomer to the room. Though still bathed in darkness, they all immediately knew who it was.

"Mr. Dark!" Mercurial cried out again.

"Please Mercurial, there's no reason to be so dramatic all the time," Mr. Dark told the boy.

"I-I know. I…just…can't help it sometimes."

"Yes I know. We'll have to work on that."

The shape shifter nodded nervously as he drew back into himself once more. The others kept their attention on the man that had all brought them together. He had a penchant for sticking to the shadows, which is why they guessed he chose his particular moniker. He was also in darkness unless he wanted you to see him. The only feature of his to be constantly seen was the plain, reflective mask he wore. It kept anyone from seeing his face or emotions and allowed the viewers to only see themselves in a warped reflection. Though each of them knew he bore no ill will toward them, it still unnerved them to look at the mask as it did any of his opponents. His constant debonair demeanor seemed to enhance his intimidating presence even more. He gave them all a quick overview before he continued.

"Now as Strika pointed out, you all did exceptionally well in your first battle with Teen Titans, but you lost the edge of surprise. You must rely on your skills and teamwork to carrying you through until the plan is completed. Make no mistake about it, the Titans WILL interfere with our work from here on out and they WILL try to defeat you."

"Then why didn't you let us just kill them when we have the chance?" Beta asked.

"Because killing your opponent and beating them aren't necessarily one in the same."

"Huh?" Pyra mumbled.

"If you kill your opponent in the heat of battle all you've accomplished is to destroy his physical body. His spirit is more than willing to keep fighting and from my experiences the hero's spirit is the most willing of all. They will keep fighting no matter the odds. It's actually quite annoying."

"So then what are we suppose to do?" Pyra asked, still seeming slightly confused.

"Break that spirit of course. For heroes such as the Titans the best way to do that is to hand them defeat after defeat. Show them that they are no match for your strength. Show them at even at their best they are not match for you. Chip away at them little by little until they finally come to the conclusion that they cannot defeat you, that there is no winning. Then," he paused as he brought a black gloved hand up to his face with the palm open, "then we shall crush them!"

His statement was concluded by balling his hand into a fist, the point driven even deeper by the action being reflected in his mask. The members of Terror Sect looked at each other and were joined together by one unifying thought: crush the Teen Titans.

**To Be Concluded…**

Author's Notes: Cue dramatic music. Well, there you have it, the villain reveal. However, I'm sure you're all still wondering quite a bit about him, aren't you? Well you'll just have to stay tuned to find out. Hence the title of this chapter. Leaves questions for the Titans as well as the readers. Also, I know this is a bit of a talky chapter, but it couldn't be helped, I had to move the plot along as well as give some screen time to my villains to flesh them out. Hope you all enjoyed it. Additional notes, Kwiz Kid comes from the Teen Titans Go! comic. I originally was just going to have his name there but then the paragraph about him just kinda sprang into my mind. I also decided to include Punk Rocket into my universe and make a joke about how he and my OC Thrash were similar, by the way, is just consequential. Now enough of my rambling, on to reader responses. I see some new faces in the crowd as well as a familiar one.

Reviews:

TDG3RD: As I said above, now you know who Terror Sect is working for. As for what Mr. Dark's goals are…well again, you'll just have to wait and see.

JustIce37: Not clones at all, but rather a team put together specifically to take out the Titans, as the story itself stated. As for how they're actually able to beat the Titans, it's like the old saying goes "Practice, practice, practice".

ThunderDragon: No, they won't forget that butt kicking for a long time to come. Hope you enjoyed seeing the fall out from it.

BolenPUCR: You know I was wondering if anyone was going to keep a scorecard on how the two teams did. You may come to regret that decision later, though. Hehe. Glad you liked my OCs and I hope liked their little scene there at the end.

NateZ: Good to see you're still so supportive of my stuff. Here's a new chapter for you. Enjoy it! Heh.


	4. Meet Mr Dark

_Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Teen Titans, so don't ask. I DO however, own all original characters mentioned in this fic and to use them you WILL have to ask me. _

**New Players on the Stage**

**Chapter 4: Meet Mr. Dark**

Deep beneath the streets of Jump City lays the ruins of a long abandoned and forgotten church. It had been buried there decades before by a massive earthquake that had demolished much of the original Jump City. What was left of that part of the city had been closed off from the public and was scheduled for demolition at some unspecified date. Most of the citizens had either forgotten about it or ignored it completely in favor of the brighter, more modern parts of the city.

But there was one person that didn't forget. A person that embraced the destroyed landscape and in particular the buried church. He used it in his plans to take over the city. It was there that he took a scared and lost little girl and twisted her into a psychopath like him. This person of course being Slade, the Teen Titans first true foe. The girl was Terra, a powerful meta-human with the ability to move the earth itself. Unfortunately, she had little to no control over these powers and she feared the damage she could cause.

So she ran away from those who would be her friends and right into the arms of the madman. He in turn, used her as his ultimate weapon to defeat the Titans, conquer the city with then onward to his final goal: the world. His plan failed, though, when his own apprentice turned against him, having seen the folly of her ways. In her last acts of redemption she not only defeated Slade, but also saved the city from a volcano that was about to erupt. Her reward for this effort was to be turned into her stone, a permanent look of sorrow on her face. 

The church was silent once again now. Its only occupant was the scared little girl who acted as her own monument. The silence was broken by the soft, steady sounds of footsteps. A figure dressed in red and green gently walked through the old the partially destroyed building and makeshift memorial. The figure, of course, being Robin, leader of the Teen Titans. He was down here not to pay his respect to his fallen teammate, though he knew he should do that more often, but rather to follow up on the case he was working. This was the last place any of them had seen Slade alive. He just had to check this one last site before he could truly accept the fact that Slade wasn't the cause of their current misery. Robin paused for a moment as he pasted Terra's frozen form. His expression changed to one of sorrow and guilt as he looked up into her frozen eyes then looked at the small plague he and others had placed at the base of her feet.

TERRA   
A TEEN TITAN  
A TRUE FRIEND

"I'm sorry Terra," he said softly. "I know we promised to reverse this but...things haven't seen so easy for us lately. We'll figure out a way though. Somehow."

He turned away from the petrified girl to study his surroundings more closely. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to replay the scene in his head. Naturally, he could remember from his perspective, but he had to try and see it from Terra's point of view if he was to proceed. He took another moment to concentrate before he reopened his eyes and stared straight ahead. If Terra stood where her...statue was standing, now then Slade would have been...

His thoughts paused for a moment as he took a few large steps forward.

...Here! Yes, based on what he could remember this was the spot where they had all seen Slade disappear. Robin, narrowed his eyes behind his mask and kneeled down to examine the ground. He ran his fingers over the spot, which only resulted in dirtying up his gloves. Still, he inspected the dust on them as well as the spot in general. Try as he might, he couldn't find any evidence that the ground had been disturbed at all. That could mean either that he was VERY good at covering his tracks or, mostly likely, that Slade truly was dead. Unfortunately, Robin didn't know if he should be happy or terrified by that fact. While he certainly didn't want to see Slade again anytime soon, the fact that someone else took such an interest in them greatly unnerved him. Who could be behind the Terror Sect and why was this person so interested in the Titans?

"It must really be bothering you, huh?" a voice suddenly called out.

Robin instantly sprang to his feet and towards the sound of the voice, only to be rewarded with a boot heel to his cheek. The force of the unexpected blow caused him to do a 180 in midair before he crashed face first onto the hard, unforgiving ground. Once he recovered, he rubbed his throbbing cheek and was thankfully that nothing felt broken. He then quickly reached towards his belt, in one swift motion pulled out a Bird-A-Rang, and tossed it in the direction the kick had come from. Not surprisingly, the weapon flew harmlessly through the air. Robin let out a groan of frustration then pulled himself to his feet and casually caught the Bird-a-Rang when it flew back towards him. He slipped it back into his belt while he closely examined the area again, looking for any sign of his opponent.

"Missed me," her voice rang from behind him.

He grunted angrily as he spun around with his arm outstretched in an attempt to backhand her. Unfortunately, she had ducked under the arm and quickly launched her own arm forward with her palm turned upwards and fingers curled. The blow landed squarely on Robin's wound from behind, causing the Titan's leader to reel back in pain. Again, his opponent, Strika, took advantage of his openness and struck him with her other palm on the opposite side of his face from which she had planted her boot heel. Robin fell towards the ground once more, this time with both sides of his face throbbing. He pushed back the pain and launched himself towards the masked girl, striking out in a blind rage. The attacks were sloppy and easily dodged or blocked by his enemy.

"Come on Robin, I know that's not all ya got!" Strika taunted as she sidestepped another punch.

"You don't know anything about me!" Robin growled.

"Sure I do. That's what's got you so upset after all. My team and I know almost everything about the Titans. Your quirks, your personalities, your secrets," she paused as she caught his arm and held it in a vice like grip, "your moves."

She then twisted the arm as she moved behind him, holding to his back while her other hand grabbed his free arm. She gave his arm another twist as she leaned in close to whisper into his ear.

"We know all that about you and yet you don't know a thing about us. Must be real frustrating," she taunted.

"What do you want! Who are you working for!" Robin grunted through the pain.

"I thought what we wanted was kind of obvious. As for who we're working for...well you'll just have to wait and find out. Don't worry though, you'll meet him soon enough."

The Titan leader's eyebrow quirked at that last remark. She had said "him". That would help with narrowing the field down, not by much but it was more than what he had a few moments ago. He thought about trying to see what other information he could get from her, but the pain in his arm cut off that thought. He had to break the hold before she broke his arm. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, he groaned as he mustered all the strength he could and leaned forward, lifting Strika off her feet. Caught off guard, she let her grip loosen enough for him to free his arms and throw her off him as he moved forward. She controlled her flight well enough to twist her body in mid-air so that she landed perfectly on her feet next to Terra's fossilized form. Robin growled and was about to charge her when she pulled out one of her explosive spikes and held it next to Terra's stomach.

"Ah, ah, ah," Strika admonished, wagging the index finger of her other hand. "I won't do anything hasty if I were you. Unless of course you want to explain to Beast Boy why his girlfriend is now a pile of gravel."

The Boy Wonder still stood tense for a moment, deciding if he should take the risk of tackling the girl before she had time to move. His logical side won out and he let out a small sigh and slumped his shoulders slightly when he knew there was no way he could act that fast.

"Good boy. Now I have to get going, but don't worry, I'll be seeing you around real soon."

With that, Strika tossed the weapon towards Robin. It buried itself in the ground right in front of him and quickly began beeping. Robin jumped away as far as he could, ignoring the pain of his wound reopening even more. He rolled along the hard, rocky ground and covered himself with his cape just as the device went off, sending small chunks of rocks and dust everywhere. When it seemed as though everything had calmed down, he pulled back his cape and stood up, groaning a bit as pain shot through his chest. He looked for Strika but as he suspected, there was no trace of the warrior girl. He wouldn't bother wasting the energy looking for her either, he had used this trick enough times himself to know that she was gone. As he stood there, he reflected on the last word she had said to him.

_"Now I have to get going, but don't worry, I'll be seeing you around real soon."_

"Count on it," he said softly as he clenched a fist.

Titan's Tower was quieter than usual. There was no post fight celebration or even any relaxation time. Those things only came when they were victorious, which they sadly were not in their last battle. So the usual routine was thrown out in favor of following Robin's orders in trying to find out as much as they could about this new Terror Sect group. While their leader had gone off in private to search, they began to exhaust what means they could at the Tower. Raven searched through various papers to see if anything had been written about the attack the other day and to see if they had committed any other crimes the Titans didn't know about. Starfire did a similar search through the news channels while Cyborg used a new upgrade to shift through the police frequencies in hopes overhearing something useful. And Beast Boy...

Beast Boy was bored. At first he truly did try to help out, watching the news channels with Starfire and helping Raven sort through the papers, but he quickly lost interest in both and found his mind wandering. When he suggested a break to play the latest version of Super Ninja Fury, the others simply glared at him as he shrank down into the couch. When they finally went back to what they had been doing, Beast Boy sat up again with a sigh that was a mixture of relief and sadness. It was not like he was purposely trying to distract everyone else, but he was bored and needed some distraction himself. He just wanted to do **something**, no matter what it was, just as long as it kept his mind off what he had seen. It wasn't Terra. It **couldn't** have been Terra! But...it was so convincing. Looking into her eyes...it just **felt** like her.

The green changeling shook his head to clear away those thoughts. He focused his attention on the TV again and fortunately, the news station Starfire had been watching, switched over to a celebrity news program. It wasn't much but at least it was more entertaining than the real news. And maybe he'd be able to find out something about one of the upcoming movies he wanted to see. At the moment, the head anchor was talking about the latest Hollywood power couple and the gossip surrounding them.

_Ah. Pure escapist entertainment,_ he thought as he folded his arms behind his head.

"Friends, I am confused," Starfire spoke up.

"About what?" Raven asked, not looking away from her paper.

"I am unsure as to why the details of this couple's life are so fascinating. While I am most happy for them to have found someone they care about, I am understanding why it must be talked about on the channels of news."

"Because people are overly fixated on celebrities and need to know every aspect of their lives. Particularly those who have none of their own."

"Hey! Was that a crack at me!" Beast Boy shouted.

"No, of course not," Raven replied, holding her paper closer to her face.

"Then why did you look at me when you said that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"But," Starfire started, adjusting her injured foot on the armwar it sat on, "are we not considered the celebrities of Jump City?"

"Yep! Pretty cool, isn't it?" Beast Boy asked, swelling his chest out a bit.

"Then would not people want to know all about our lives and spread the gossip about us?"

The other three stopped what they were doing and stared at each other. As was usually the case with Starfire, it was a simple enough question that carried with it rather complex answers. They were sure that given their rather public displays, that some of the more sleazy journalists out there would want to know everything about their lives. And why not? Five teenage superheroes living unsupervised in a giant "T" would make great fodder for the tabloids. Hence why they always kept away from them as well as any entertainment news stories about the team. Finding out what people thought was going on behind the doors and who they thought was sleeping with who was actually a rather disturbing concept.

Thankfully, none of them had to answer the question, as all of their attention was diverted towards the door to the main room when they heard it slide open and saw Robin entering. Starfire abandoned her question for the moment and levitated herself off the couch to fly over towards the returning leader. She landed as softly as she could and withheld a grimace as a slight pain shot through her leg. She ignored it and smiled towards the Boy Wonder.

"Robin! Did you find something important on your mission?" she asked, then noticed the splotch of darker red soaking through his costume. "You are injured."

"It's nothing, I'm fine," he replied gruffly as he tried to walk pasted her.

He was stopped by a sudden jolt that yanked him backwards slightly. He let out a small groan of pain as the movement pulled at his reopened wound more and once he regained his footing he turned around to find Starfire holding onto his wrist.

"Starfire, let go of me," he growled as he struggled against her grip.

"No," she replied softly, looking at the floor. "You said you would not do this again."

"Do what?"

"Close yourself off from your friends. You are wounded and refuse help. You know something and will not tell us. You are acting just as you did when we first encountered Slade. You promised that you would not do such things again," she paused to look him in the eyes. "You promised me."

As Robin looked into her bright green eyes, a new pain passed over him; the pain of guilt. He knew what she was saying was true. Without even realizing it, he had slipped right back into his old patterns. The patterns he had moved away from Gotham and helped formed the Titans to get away from. The saying about old habits went through his mind before he noticed the other six pairs of eyes staring at him as well. He hung his head with a sound he rarely made, a sigh of defeat.

"You're right," he said quietly. "I was turning away from you again and I'm sorry." At this point, he realized he had been looking directly at Starfire while the others were staring at him. His eyes widened a second before he corrected himself, "To all of you. I-I shouldn't have ignored any of you."

Starfire nodded and let go of his wrist while the others simply exchanged knowing glances.

"So, may you now tell us what you have found?" Starfire asked.

"Alright," he nodded in return. "I went to Terra's..." he paused as he glanced at Beast Boy, "memorial to see if Slade **had** managed to escape somehow. From what I could tell, the ground hadn't be disturbed at all so at this point I'm willing to rule out him as a suspect. Unless, of course, he made some miraculous return from the dead. Whoever it is this, has studied up on us because I was attacked by Strika while I was there. That's how my wound reopened."

"Dude! They know about Terra? Who **are** these guys!" Beast Boy wondered aloud.

"More accurately, who are they working for?" Raven asked.

"I don't know," Robin spoke again. "When we fought, all Strika made mention to was a 'he'."

"That's...really not much to go on."

"I know. Were you guys able to find anything useful?"

"Nope," Cyborg said with a shake of his head. "We went through all the papers, news channels, and I scanned every police band I could and got nothing. It's like they just disappeared."

"In that case, we're just going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

"Uh...didn't you say you already tried that?" Beast Boy pointed out.

"No I said I went to see if Slade was still alive. Now I'm going to go scour the streets for any clues as to Terror Sect's whereabouts. And you're going to help me?"

"Me!"

Robin sighed. "**All** of you. We'll spit up and take different parts of the city. Hopefully we'll be able to turn up something on these guys before they strike again."

"And if we do not?" Starfire queried.

"Then we'll probably get our butts kicked again," Beast Boy interjected, downheartedly.

Robin didn't respond verbally, but the grim look that crossed his face made it quite clear; he would not accept another defeat as an option. They would find Terror Sect and their master and wherever they may be hiding and stop them before they had a chance to carry their plans out any further, whatever they may be.

Ironically, part of the answers Robin seeks lay not too far from where he was previously. In the same sector of the old part of the city, there still stands a meat packing plant. Though long abandoned by its original owners, it now serves as the base of operations for one of Jump City's most notorious felons. The heart of which is stationed in the former room sized freezer used to store the racks of meat. While the chunks of skinned flesh were long gone, the cooling mechanism still worked just fine. This was by design of course. The current occupant of the building preferred colder climates, having gotten use to work in such conditions years before. He found it helped to keep certain sensitive devices free of dust and bacteria. It also gave him a distinct advantage over those who were not use to such environments and thus usually gave him an edge in the conversation. Something that was invaluable in his line of work. Especially considering that fact that some of his clients could be a little...unruly if not kept in line. That is why he preferred to due business over video conferences or here within his lab. Here, he could control things. Here, he was safe.

"Professor Chang," a voice spoke up from the darkness.

Said professor spun towards the source of the voice, shocked someone could have made it into his inner sanctum without his knowledge.

"Who's there?" he asked, searching for the other man.

"A potential costumer," the voice replied.

Try as he might, Prof. Chang couldn't see anything more than a vague outline of the man. The only reason he was sure it was a man was because of how deep the voice sounded. Beyond that, he was unsure of who he was speaking too. Even when he detected movement from his unwanted visitor, he was still draped in shadows, as if the darkness conformed to the man. It reminded him a certain good boy who came to him once or twice in his former hideout in the old observatory. For a moment he thought that perhaps the boy's old mentor come to shut his operation down, but it was quickly dismissed when he finally glimpsed a feature of the other person; a sheen, reflective mask. The dim light of the room bounced off it, drawing Chang's attention to it and only offering the vaguest ideas of what else he wore. He pushed that out of his mind for the moment and focused on the more important question.

"How did you get in here?"

"There are many cracks in your security. You should really get those looked at," the form replied as he began to inspect the instruments laid out on a table. "But that's a matter for later. Right now, as I said, I've come inquire about one of your latest...acquisitions."

"Ah, I see," Prof. Chang replied as he slipped into his professional mode. "But I like to know who I'm doing business with, Mr..."

"Dark. Mr. Dark will do for now."

"Alright then, Mr. Dark. Exactly what 'acquisition' are you talking about? I've acquired a lot recently."

"This one is fairly new. A certain chip."

"Ah, you're referring to the XR-71 chip. A very valuable one, specifically designed to work for a multitude of devices and increase their output exponentially." The gleeful smile soon vanished from the mad scientist's face as he thought the request over. "But how did you know about that? I only very recently came into position of it. I haven't even had time to advertise it yet."

"I have my sources," Mr. Dark replied as he picked up one of the nastiest looking instruments and examined it. "Now, we're both reasonable men. I'm sure we can come to a price that acceptable to both of us."

"I'm sure we can. After what my men had to go through to get the chip, and to make sure those annoying Titans didn't interfere, I think...40 million should suffice."

Mr. Dark raised he head slightly upon hearing the price. "That's unacceptable."

"On the contrary, I think it's quite fair. Particularly when I'm debating with someone who came to me without going through the proper channels. Breaking into my personal sanctum does not put me in a bargaining mood."

"Perhaps not, but I need that chip and I am going to leave here with it. One way or another," the dark clad stranger said as he examined an instrument that looked like a combination of a pair of pliers and a scalpel.

"Is that so? Well I AM willing to work something out," Prof. Chang replied while his hand slowly slid across the bench he was leaning on towards a hidden weapon.

Right as his hand was about to reach it, the instrument Mr. Dark had been holding flew towards him and impaled itself into the bench in such a way that his middle finger was trapped in-between the two blades. He gasped as the suddenness of the attack and sweating began to collect on his borrow when he found out it would be impossible to move his hand without cutting the finger off. He turned his attention back to his "guest", who was not walking towards him with a small hook in his left hand. He stopped just inches from the weapon's dealer and held up the instrument, looking at it thoughtfully before snagging it on the small tube coming out of Prof. Chang's right nostril.

"You know, I have always wondered just what exactly this is for," Mr. Dark said calmly, yanking slightly at the hook. "More importantly, I have wondered what would happen if it were to be removed. Exactly how far back does it go?"

Prof. Chang tried his best not to twitch too much, which at the moment seemed harder than he ever would have thought. For some illogical reason knowing that the wrong move could cost him a finger or worse only seemed to make his body shake even more. He stared into the faceplate before him to try and find some trace of the man behind it, but all he could see was his own terrified face reflecting back to him. Somehow being able to see as well as feel the tube in his nose being pulled added to the state of urgency of the situation, which was no doubt the purpose of the stranger's mask. It also made it impossible to read his expression to know if he was bluffing or not. Of course, given his usual cliental he had the distinct feeling that this man wasn't bluffing. Either way, he didn't want to find out.

"Forty thousand!" Prof. Chang blurted out. "I'll only charge forty thousand for it."

Mr. Dark stood still for a moment before he pulled back and unhooked the instrument.

"I know we could come to an agreement," he said calmly before he pulled the other instrument out of the bench, feeing the professor's hand. "Now then, let's discuss the arrangements."

Prof. Chang nodded eagerly as he walked off to retrieve said chip. As he inspected his hand for cuts, one thought ran through his head:

_I need to get out of this city._

Downtown Jump City is a busy place. In stark contrast to the older parts of the city, downtown has numerous buildings standing tall, proud, and reaching towards the sky. While most of them looked similar on the outside, varying only in size and sometimes in shape, on the inside they each had their own unique purposes. Some were businesses, others apartment complexes, somewhere waiting to be rented, but one closely guarded its secrets. To the populace at large, it was just another building standing amongst a plethora of others, but on the inside, it was home to those bent on their destruction. To those who knew, the old adage of hiding in plain sight would come to mind. For beyond the mundane exterior lay the headquarters of Jump City's newest set of villains, the Terror Sect. Here they trained and planed their defeat of the Titans and dominance of the city.

At the moment, however, they were doing what most teenagers like to do; relaxing. Three of the members of the young villain group lounged in the large entertainment room their employer had provided for them. Pyra lay sprawled out on the couch with her right arm tucked under her head while her left arm rested on her stomach. Her head was tilted to the right to stare at the big screen TV at the other end of the room. Much to her dismay, the screen was currently filled with images from a fantasy role-playing game that Tekka was engaged in. Because the fire wielder took up the couch, Tekka was forced to sit cross legged on the floor with her back propped against the bottom half of the couch. A small smile graced her lips as she heard another of Pyra's muttered protests about her game. In addition to being a fun game, it was also the prefect way to pay Pyra back for taking up the whole couch.

"How much longer is this going to take?" the red head groaned.

"Until I get to the next Save Point," Tekka replied.

"You said that three Save Points ago."

"It's a very engrossing game."

"Yeah right. The only thing more boring than actually playing one of those things is watching someone playing it. I like the kind where you just get to go around and blow up stuff!"

"That's because you have no patience. Or tact."

Pyra scoffed. "You're one to talk Ms. Belly Button."

"At least I'm not flashing half my chest to everyone in sight," Tekka countered.

"Hey, this is all about distracting the enemy! And I'll have you know it works just fine! Besides, I still have more on than you."

"And that just makes things right, doesn't it?"

"Of course it does! Beta, you want to use that computer brain of your to tell her I'm right?" Pyra asked, craning her neck towards him.

Tekka looked at him as well and both sets of female eyes saw him sitting in one of the recliners in the room with his jacket thrown over the back of it and his attention fully on the copy of _Technology Today_ in his hands. He spared them only a cursory glance before he went back to the article he had been reading.

"Sorry, but I know enough about human girls than to get into the middle of that kind of conversation," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh come on," the fire wielder pleaded. "You have to have **some** kind of an opinion."

"Nope. None at all."

"But..."

"No opinion."

Pyra scoffed again and before she could make another remark, the door at the end of the room opened and the three turned to watch their leader Strika walk in. She gave them all a quick nod as she walked over to the kitchenette area of the room and pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge. She took a long swig from it before she focused her attention on the three.

"So, what's up?" she asked.

"Well," Pyra started, pulling herself up into a sitting pose to look at Strika. "Tekka here say that my costume shows off too much, which I think is completely hypocritical and that I have no tact."

Strika turned the information over in head for a moment.

"Yeah I could see that," she remarked.

"Figures," the other girl replied as she plopped back down onto the couch. "You two agree on pretty much everything. I swear, it's like you're joined at the hip."

The two girls in question looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads and laughing. Once the moment passed, Strika looked over the group again and her brow furrowed when she notice one of their number was missing.

"Where's Mercurial?" she asked.

"Where else?" Pyra shot back. "In his room muttering to himself."

"You didn't try to talk to him?"

"I did," Tekka spoke up. "But it didn't seem to go that well. He's in one of his worse moods today."

Strika nodded solemnly as she twisted the cap back onto her bottle.

"I'll go talk to him then," she said.

After placing the bottle back into the fridge, she exited the room through the other door that led towards their living spaces. She walked a steady pace, not in any great hurry to get to the shape shifter's room. This was the part about being team leader that she hated, having to make sure everyone was in good moral. It wasn't that she disliked the job itself, but with a group like this it was a tiring job. It had to be done though. It was one of the first thing Mr. Dark had told them all when he first brought them all together. They had to think of each other as a team and not just a group of villains working together. That had been the downfall of some many other groups. Although they were working for the same overall goals, they each still had their own agendas and so when it came down to it, they could never trust each other. The Terror Sect would not fall prey to such petty differences. They would work together as a team, become friends, family even. So when one member was hurt, the others did what they could to help them.

Unfortunately, this meant mental help as well as physical help. While Strika didn't mind talking with the others, talking with Mercurial always unnerved her. He was a great asset to the team to be sure. His ability to morph his body into various objects gave him a wide range of weapons and being able to take on anyone's form made him perfect for infiltration. More so given the fact that he didn't simply just copy someone's appearance, he practically became them. Every mannerism and tick they had, he was able to replicate. He was even able to duplicate the powers of other metahumans when he took their forms. It was actually an incredible thing to watch.

With these powers came a price, however. Because he was so good at taking on other people's personalities, it seemed somewhere along the line he lost his own. Mr. Dark once told her that when he found Mercurial he was sitting in an alleyway trembling and muttering incoherently to himself. He brought the boy in, hoping to teach how to harness his powers as well as cure his fractured mind. The latter being much more challenging than it appeared. Although he had improved greatly from when he was first brought into the group, Mercurial still tended to keep to himself. Even when they were able to convince him to come out of his room, he still stayed apart from the group and talked very little. Unless of course it was to himself.

Strika stopped just in front of Mercurial's door and took a breath to calm herself before she lightly knocked.

"Merc? You in there?" she asked softly.

"Who is it? What do you want?" the slightly panicked cry came back.

"It's Strika and I just want to talk."

When she received no answer, she took it as his form of inviting her in. She pressed the "Open" button on the small keypad next to the door and it opened with a slight "whoosh". She stepped in to find it lit by a small desk lamp sitting on the bed stand and the open window that Mercurial sat in front of, rocking back and forth slightly in the chair. She walked over to him slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements or noises that might startle him. She glanced out at the window as she sat on the bed and saw that his room had a perfect view of river...and Titan's Tower.

"They're in there," the shape shifter spoke up, surprising her somewhat. "They're in there waiting. Wanting to hurt. But...they also want to save. But also hurt. I...I don't..."

"I know," Strika said quietly. "But they're only hurt us as much as we'll let them. We've already proven we're better than them."

"I-I don't want to fight. But I have to. Have to fight to end fight. I'm so confused," he muttered while he rubbed his temples.

Strika's expression softened and she gently reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a bit at the sudden feeling but when he saw it was her, he calmed down some.

"I know you don't want to fight, but we have to. Once we get rid of the Titans and have this city-this world for our own we can get the best treatment there is. We'll find someone who can help you put the pieces back together," she told him, praying she sounded more confident than she felt.

"Really?" he asked in a hopeful tone. Before she could answer though he jerked away from her with a shake of his head. "No! Can't help. Too many. Just too many. So-so many faces. Voices. People. I-I don't know who I am any more."

"Merc, focus!" she commanded, drawing his attention again. "You need to calm down and think through it. The sessions are helping, aren't they?"

"Yes. Yes they are."

"Good. Then just remember what you learned from them and you'll be alright for now."

He gave another frantic nod before he closed eyes and began breathing in slow, steady breathes. After a moment, he stopped shaking altogether and a calm demeanor seemed to over take him."

"You OK?" she asked, tentatively.

"Yes," he replied in a much more controlled voice, though it still held uncertainty.

"Good. Then when you feel you're up to it the rest of us are hanging out in the lounge. You're welcome to come."

"I...might. In-in a bit."

She nodded then stood up and walked briskly toward the door. She glanced over her shoulder at him one last time before stepping out into the hall. Once the door closed behind her, she leaned against it and let out a sigh.

"Having another one of his episodes, I take it."

She jolted upright at the sound of the voice and then turned to see the real leader of the Terror Sect standing before her.

"Sir!" she said sharply.

"No need for that," Mr. Dark replied, holding up a gloved hand.

"Sorry, it's just an impulse."

"One I've tried to break you off many times."

"I...I know," she said as she lowered her head and held onto her left arm.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, just a habit you need to break. And I'm assuming from your posture that Mercurial had another lapse."

"Yes. I tried to do what I could to help but..." she shook her head. "It's going to take a lot more than either of us have."

"I know. We can only hope that his sanity holds out long enough for us to complete our plans. After which we will find him the helps he needs."

"Right."

There was a moment of silence.

"Mr. Dark?" she asked tentatively. "May I ask where you were coming from just now?"

"Simply acquiring something I needed for the device. I can't send you to do all my work for me. Though I will require you to head out later tonight for a new component."

"We'll be ready sir," she nodded.

"Good. I think I'll accompany you this time. I want to meet the Titans in person and, not to sound too cliché, make them an offer they dare not refuse."

Strika nodded again, but this time her face held a look of confusion as Mr. Dark walked away from her. Out of all the members of Terror Sect, she spent the most time talking to him and working with him on his plans. They had a mutual trust and respect for each other, but there were still times when he kept his business secret from her. While she didn't always like it, she accepted it and moved on. This was obviously one of those times. All she knew was that whatever he had in mind for the Titans it wouldn't be good for them. And that thought made her smile.

Robin's growl was drowning out by the roar of his R-cycle's engine. As he had suggested the Titans split up and scoured the city for any traces of their newest foes. The search had started in the late afternoon and looked like it would stretch long into the night. He didn't want to call the search off just yet, but he knew the others would be getting tired soon and therefore getting sloppy. Unlike him, they didn't have the luxury of late night scouting and raids so he knew they weren't use to keeping such hours. If he had to, he could at least still look for clues on his own. It wasn't an idea he particularly liked, but neither was letting a group of criminals get away. Another thing his prestigious upbringing taught him; how to obsess over keeping the city free from undesirables. Although he wasn't as connected to Jump City as his mentor was to **his** city just yet, he could still feel something was wrong. He just didn't know where.

"Robin, it's Cyborg, come in," the radio in his helmet crackled.

"Robin here, what is it?" he asked, hoping it was something useful.

"Got a report of a break-in in the business district. Got the T-Car right outside the building now so all you gotta do is follow the homing signal."

The Boy Wonder glanced down at the small screen built into the R-Cycle and just as Cyborg said, the distinctive beep of the Titan's primary mode of transportation was there. And not too far from where he was right now. A smile graced Robin's lips before he responded.

"I'll be right there. Robin out."

He closed the connection before his teammate could respond then jerked on the handlebars so that the motorcycle whipped around and sent him to his new distinction. Though he arrived in only a few minutes, it still felt like hours to him. He was anxious to get this fight started and over with as quickly as they could. Thankfully, when he arrived he saw the other Titan's had already gotten there, with Starfire landing just as he pulled the R-Cycle up along side the T-Car. He slipped off his helmet and placed in on the gas tank before walking over towards the others.

"Is this it?" he asked, looking up at the tall building in front of them.

"Yep. Report said, five costumed teenagers brought in about half hour ago and since we're all here..." Cyborg let the sentence hang.

"It has to be _them_," Robin finished as he punched his right fist into the palm of his left hand. "Let's go."

The Titans followed their leader inside the building to the spacious, and at the moment dimly lit, lobby. He made a few hand motions as a signal for them to start looking for any clues as to where the Terror Sect may have gone. A quick inspection of the area revealed that even with as large as the lobby was, there weren't many options for their enemies to hide there.

"Maybe they already left," Beast Boy hoped.

"No, they're here. I feel it," Robin said darkly.

"OK, but where? My sensors aren't picking up anything," Cyborg informed him as he looked at the computer build into his right arm.

"They could be jamming you. Raven, can you pick anything up?"

"I could try, but it might take a few minutes and-"

"Perhaps this is where they have gone," Starfire interrupted from her place in front of the directory board.

Robin walked over to see exactly what she was pointing to. His eyebrow quirked when he saw the name of the company on the 7th floor.

"Infinite Technologies, Inc?" he mused. "Looks like the right place. Good work Starfire."

The alien girl beamed as they both turned to face the others.

"Alright Titans, looks like we're going to the 7th floor," Robin proclaimed.

"7th floor, go it!" Beast Boy remarked as he darted over to the elevators and pressed the "Up" button.

"It's the middle of the night and the building is shut down," Raven started in her usual "lecturing Beast Boy" voice. "Do you really think-"

Again she was cut off, this time by the hum of the elevator as it began to slide down the shaft. Beast Boy crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a smug look.

"Lucky," she muttered.

"No," Robin counted darkly.

"Trap?" Cyborg ventured.

"Yep."

"So then what should we do? They're probably waiting up there for us right now."

A smirk played on Robin's features as the elevator chimed and the doors slid open.

"Then let's not keep them waiting," he mused as he walked forward.

The others looked at each other before they shrugged and followed him into the elevator. Once they were situated comfortably enough, Robin pressed the button for their desired floor and they all waited as the machine began to move. As they rode upwards into what was obviously a trap, they had to wonder what was worse; the anticipation of the fight that lay ahead or the muzak version of Air Supply's "All Out of Love" playing over the speakers. They decided the latter was worse once Beast Boy began to hum along to the tune. They turned their attention to their green-skinned friend and gave him odd looks. He blushed when he realized they were all looking at him.

"What? I like this song," he said sheepishly.

Before anyone could make a remark, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Cyborg shifted his right arm into its sonic cannon form while Starfire powered up her Starbolts. They took the lead out of the elevator to allow time for Robin to ready his weapons and for Raven to get into the proper mindset. Beast Boy hung into the back, not sure what he could do now. They looked around the immediate area for anything out of place, but thanks to the lights being dimmed for the night, it was hard to make anything out. What they could see was a large main room, much like the lobby, filled mostly with rows of cubicles with numerous hallways, no doubt leading off to comfortable corner offices. As they continued to scan the office space, a sudden noise caught their attention. It sounded like a light squeaking that was moving towards them, rather quickly. It took a moment for them to realize it was coming from behind them and in quick, fluid motions Cyborg and Starfire spun around and began firing...right at the cleaning lady's cart. The frightened woman jumped back down the hallway as her cart was incinerated by a barrage of Starbolts and sonic waves.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold it!" Robin shouted once he realized their mistake.

The two stopped their attacks at their leader's behest, and once they realized what they had down their cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

"What the hell are you doing?" the cleaning lady asked as she poked her head out at them.

"Sorry," Cyborg offered.

"I am sorry as well," Starfire added.

"We're all sorry," Robin finished.

"Yeah we thought you were someone else," Beast Boy piped in.

The older woman looked at them like they're all crazy before she went to salvaging what she could from her cart. Robin sighed then turned back around to face his team.

"This isn't going to work," he said.

"At least now we know we can take on the old cleaning ladies," Beast Boy retorted, earning him a poke in the ribs from Raven.

"I think we need to split up," Robin continued.

"Good idea. We can do more damage that way."

This time it was Raven who made the snide remark, earning her a harsh glare from the Boy Wonder. She shrugged uncaringly but remained silent. Robin took this as his cue to continue issuing his orders.

"Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire and I will each take different hallways. Cyborg, stay out here and see if you can find anything or anyone suspicious. Just...make sure you look first this time."

"Hey that wasn't my fault!" Cyborg protested. "You said this was a trap so I was on edge!"

"I still think it's a trap. But it proves there might be some employees here as well so we need to be careful. Oh and Starfire?"

"Yes?" she asked, afraid she might get a lecture as well.

He looked back over his shoulder at the cleaning woman before he addressed her.

"Can you help her get out of the building safely?"

"I will do my best."

After a quick nod to her, the team split off in separate directions. As Cyborg began to look behind the cubicle walls, Starfire cautiously approached the woman she had just been shooting at moments earlier.

"Please do not be afraid. I am not here to do you...further harm," she told the frightened woman softly.

"Are you sure? Cause my health insurance doesn't cover this," the woman replied.

"Yes I am sure. I wish to escort you out of this building so that you may be safe."

"Well...alright. But there's something I forgot in the back office down there," she replied, pointing to the hallway she had just come from.

"I shall accompany you while you retrieve it then."

The woman gave her a suspicious look but then shrugged and motioned for the alien girl to follow her. Starfire did as she was instructed, following the older woman down the dimly lit hall, looking from side to side for anything out of the ordinary. She watched the woman slip inside the office at the end of the hall then stood in the open doorway, still watching for any sign of their opponents.

"Please, we must hurry. It is not safe-ack!"

Starfire's word caught in her throat, along with her breath, when a large hand grasped her throat as she turned into the room. Gone was the older cleaning lady and in her place stood a muscular man about seven feet tall. He was dressed in a mostly red costume with a black, leather flame pattern going across the top of his biceps. He wore a leather mask with a similar design, though he didn't need it because his stringy hair covered most of his face. The hand he had wrapped around her throat was covered by a black glove while he other hand, and arm for that matter was exposed. He yanked her into the room and stared her in the eyes before he held up over his head then brought her down with full force onto the desk sitting in the middle of the room. It shattered under at the impact and Starfire moaned as she lay in the middle of broken wood. She forced her eyes opened just in time to see a big, black boot coming down on her face. She brought her hands forward to catch the foot then pushed back and sent the man falling to the floor. She levitated and fired a Starbolt at him, but he rolled out of the way.

As he rolled his body shifted once more. This time he turned into an equally large...creature but his muscles were larger and he was covered in a black costume with clawed hands and a giant white spider across his chest and continuing on his back. The most frightening aspect of his creature was his wide mouth full of jagged teeth and unnaturally long tongue. It stared at her with white eyes that looked to be a part of the head before he lunged at her, surprisingly quick of its size. It grabbed her wrists and held her down on the floor with the rest of its body.

"We will suck the marrow from your bones," it slobbered, green drool dripping out of his mouth.

"You shall do no such thing!" Starfire shouted as her eye glowed.

A quick shot from her eye Starbolts sent the creature flying into the air. It flipped around in the air, just grazing the roof of the office, then landed perfectly on its feet, shifting again as it did so. Where the creature once was, now stood a man in a mostly blue costume that was highlighted by gold boots, gloves and a red belt with an "X" on the buckle. He reached up to a gold visor covering his eyes and placed his fingers on a button.

"If that's how you want to play it," he replied before he pressed the button.

A red beam shot out of his eyes, hitting Starfire square in the stomach and sending flying through the window to the outside. She recovered quickly enough to stop her fall and start flying back up to the window to deal with her opponent. She stopped and let out a gasp when she saw a new figure standing the hole, smiling viciously down at her. It was a very familiar figure that she didn't think she would see again anytime soon.

"Blackfire?" she asked but then quickly shook her head. "No! You are not my sister!"

"Maybe not," the faux Blackfire retorted as she glided out the window. "But I know enough of her moves and her powers to kick your ass."

"We shall see whose ass it to be kicked!"

The two combatants glared at each other as their hands were encased in green or purple glows then darted towards one another. A sound akin to that of thunder rang out when their fists met amid a light show that would put most firework displays to shame. It was an opening gambit that showed there would be no quarter asked and none given.

Cyborg was investigating the cubicles in the main area when he heard a loud crash coming from one of the hallways. His head immediately sprang up from the desk he was looking under and he started running towards the source of the sound. He started to, but he didn't get very far. Before he could even clear the first cubicle, his body froze and lifted into the air a few inches. He tried to struggle against the invisible force, but it was to no avail. After a moment or more of struggling, he finally did move. Unfortunately, it was flying backwards at a rapid speed and stopped only when he slammed into the wall at the other end of the room. He groaned as he pulled himself from the Cyborg shaped hole then fell forward into his hands and knees. When he picked himself up, he noticed another figure, definitely female and clad in blue leather standing in the middle of one of the cubicles. Once he got his bearings back, he aimed his sonic cannon at her.

"You wouldn't shoot a helpless girl, now would you?" Tekka asked in a sugary sweet tone.

"Normally, no. But then again you're not helpless," he replied before he sent a wave of sonic energy at her.

The blast was deflected off a telekinetic shield and shot upwards, destroying part of the drop tile ceiling.

"Careful. You don't want to hurt anyone, remember?" she admonished. "I on the other hand..."

The rest of her statement came in the form of a computer monitor lifting into the air and flying towards him. He blasted it with no problems, but it proved to be enough of a distraction so that the large desk, did hit him. He let out a growl of frustration and threw the desk off him just in time to duck out of the way of a filing cabinet. He fired a series of blasts at the dark skinned girl but each one of those was deflected as well. In a desperate move, he reverted cannon back into a normal hand, then picked up the cabinet that had just been thrown at him and threw it back to her. This proved to be a mistake, however, as it stopped just inches from her fact and when sailing back to him, this time much too fast for him to move out of the way. He pushed the metal object off himself and sighed.

"Well this is getting annoying," he muttered.

Raven's head had jerked back at the first crash she heard. When they turned into a series of sounds, that's when she turned around to go see what the commotion was. This left her wide open to an attack from behind. Or at least would have, had she not heard the stairwell door open and erected a dark energy shield around herself just as she was engulfed in flames. She waited for the flames to die down before she turned to find Pyra standing at the other end of the hall, a demented smile on her face and both hand encased in fire.

"Guess I **do** need to work on that stealth thing. Oh well, it'll be much more fun to see your face when you're screaming anyway," she gloated.

"And Beast Boy thinks **I'm** the dark one," Raven mused.

"Oh really? Well then, here's some light!"

Pyra cackled joyously as she sent another barrage of flames towards the young sorceress. Once again, Raven erected a shield to protect herself, but even through it, she could feel the heat of the flames. Sweat began to form on her forehead through a combination of heat and mental exertion.

"You can't keep that up forever!" Pyra taunted.

Much as she hated to admit it, the flamer thrower was right, eventually the strain would be too much and the shield would drop, causing her to be fried like so much chicken. Fortunately, deflecting Pyra's constant stream of fire gave her an idea on how to quickly end this fight. She weakened her shield just enough to allow her the energy to engulf one of the metal trashcans in the hallway. She furrowed her brow in concentration and sent the can on a careful path under the streams of fire and towards its source. That is to say, letting it smack Pyra full force and knocking her down to the floor with a nasty bruise already forming on her cheek. Once the fire was gone, Raven dropped her shield and used her powers to rip off the ends of the sprinkler heads, flooding the hall with water. That done, she then ripped off the cords to the blinds on one of the windows then sent it down to the fallen red head, tied her up and threw her back out into the stairwell. She then sighed in exhaustion and looked down at her now soaking cape and leotard.

"Well...I guess it's better than being roasted," she quipped to herself.

She pulled back her rapidly falling hood then turned and moved back through the hallway towards the unmistakable sounds of fighting ahead of her. She almost neared the end of the hallway when she noticed the sounds of the sprinkler stop. She thought that they had simply run out of water but that was quickly proven wrong when a sudden blast of heat hit her back and sent her flying forward and sliding on the carpeted floor. She groaned and rubbed her hand on her back to check for any swelling. Thankfully, she found none, contributing it to her damp cape and the relatively low powered blast. She rolled over to see that not only where the head to the sprinklers all melted shut but Pyra was free and completely dry.

"How?" Raven asked.

"Precise body temp control," Pyra informed her in a low growled. "But that's not that issue. THIS is," she pointed to the bruise on her cheek. "You ruined my beautiful face. You are gonna PAY for that bitch!"

She let out a feral scream for unleashing an assault of fireballs that was barely able to dodge them and even the ones she did started small fires on the floor. She tried to think of some way to fight back, but really all she could think of was how much burn cream they had back at the tower. No matter the outcome of the fight, she knew she was going to need a lot of it.

Beast Boy jerked slightly as another boom filled the air. This time it was definitely one of the ones coming from outside. He was getting confused by all the loud banging noises he heard from some place or another. He wanted to go help his friends, but he wasn't sure which way to go. He almost went to the fight that sounded closest when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He turned towards it and through the open door to a corner office, he could see out the window at the bright green streak buzzing past it.

"Star?" he wondered aloud, slowly creeping towards the door.

He instantly regretted going through the doorway because the moment he passed the threshold, a metal bo staff struck out from the darkness and hit him in the stomach. He let out a grunt at the pain and air escaping his lungs and then was roughly thrown into the room by his scruff of his neck. He picked himself up off the floor only to stare Strika face-to-face. Before he could even think of something to say, she lashed out with an open palm attack to his chest, knocking him down again.

_Wow, she can hit,_ he thought as he rubbed the sore spot on his chest.

As soon as the thought had passed through his mind, Strika attacked again, this time swinging her bo-staff down to strike him in the shoulder. He avoided the attack by changing into a fly and simply flying out of the way. He flew close to the ceiling and then turned into a spider monkey, planning to fall into the villianess's face and confuse her. This plan failed, however, when he caught the business end of her staff to his chest again. She used the inertia to flip him over her head and slam him down into the floor. He switched back to his human form and glared at her.

"Dude! Seriously how many times are you going to hit me with that thing!" he shouted indignantly.

"As many time as it takes," she replied.

"Well then...try to hit this!"

With that, Beast Boy's shape grew larger as he changed into a grizzly bear. He lunged forward with a swipe of his massive claw, intending to cut the staff and two and hopefully knock her down. Unfortunately, she proved to be too quick and tucked the attack with a forward roll that brought her next to his stomach. She unleashed a flurry of punches on him before she grabbed the bear's arms and used them to propel herself upwards in a spinning kick that landed neatly on his bottom jaw. The Beast Boy bear stumbled back a bit and rubbed his now swore jaw a best he could with his paws. Deciding to change tactics once again, he turned into a giant boa and slithered across the floor. Fortunately, he was able to wrap up Strika before she could counteract him this time. He smiled as much as his snake form would allow and began to squeeze her, hoping just to knock her out.

Strika groaned as she struggled against the cold, reptilian skin surrounding her body. Her fingers struggled with a compartment on her utility belt, trying to fight through the pressure being applied to them was harder than she thought. She wouldn't have to deal with it too much longer if she could only get the compartment opened. A smile spread across her lips when she her the satisfying click, then slipped two fingers into it and pulled out a device that resembled a syringe and jabbed it into the scaly skin. She pressed the button on the top and Beast Boy's body shook violently as an electrical charge ran through him. He disentangled himself from her and subconsciously changed back into his human form as he fell to the floor. Strika took a moment to breath before prodding the green boy's limp form with her foot. When he didn't move, she smiled to herself.

"Now that that's over with," she mused and walked over to the desk.

She crossed behind it and sat down at the chair and in front of the computer sitting on top of the desk. She pulled out a modified flash drive from her belt and slipped it into the USB port on the tower. Once the computer was turned on, it automatically unlocked the password and went about finding the program she needed. In practically no time, the message box "Copy Complete" popped up on screen. She took the device out of the tower and placed it back into her belt, leaving no trace what so ever that she been in the computer. She turned it off then stood and started to walk out of the room. She looked down at Beast Boy again.

"Can't forget you," she said as she bent down and grabbed the back of his collar then processed to drag him behind her.

Robin was about to go see what all the ruckus was about, but Beta had cut his escape off by launching his tentacle at the Titan leader. Robin deflected the attack with his bo-staff and was now jumping and dodging a barrage of laser blasts. He threw a handful of Bird-a-rangs towards them but they were all shot down before they could get near him. Robin used the distraction to pole vault himself over to the Terror Sect member and land a drop kick to his chest. He landed his target, but it barely moved the metal man. The Boy Wonder recovered from the failed attack with a flip and landed in a crouching position. He threw an explosive disk at Beta, which did find the mark and did have an effect on him, knocking him down the hallway as it exploded. When he recovered Beta locked on to Robin with his arm mounted laser and tried to fire, but soon around the barrel was blocked with a Bird-a-rang. He let out a howl as it the top of the weapon exploded, only the built in fail safes keeping him from losing that arm entirely. Still, most of the cannon was gone so now his arm had a gaping hole in it until he could get it repaired. He rolled down his jacket sleeve and glared at his opponent.

"I really liked that laser," he growled.

"Sorry, can't seem to care right now," Robin retorted.

"Then I'll just have to **make** you care," Beta shouted then launched the tentacle from his left arm.

Again, Robin tried to deflect it with his staff, but this time the metal coil wrapped around his weapon and gave it a hard yank. The speed and force was enough to pull Robin from his feet and send him flying towards the android. Right where Beta waited with closed fist and arm locked, ready to strike in a second. Knowing that such a blow would most likely kill him, the masked boy twisted the staff to the right and let go. The force was enough to twist his body away from the impending attack and allow him to land safely next to the inner window of an office. Undeterred by this change of events, Beta through the staff away when it reached his hand then ran forward with blinding speed. He grabbed Robin's shirt then lifted him up, spun around once then threw him through the window and into the office. Robin used his cape to protect his face from the shards of glass around him but could do nothing to stop his flight. He bounced off the desk and crashed to the floor, knocking the wheeled chair out of the way as he did so. He groaned and placed his hand over his now throbbing chest, figuring he must have reopened the wound again.

Beta chuckled at his own handy work, then smashed the wooden railing running along what was left of the window as he stepped into the office. He shot his tentacle out again and impaled the desk, missing Robin's head by mere centimeters. He hooked the cord around the edge of the desk then jerked his arm back, causing the piece of furniture to fly upwards and smash against the ceiling near where he was standing.

"Peek-a-boo. I see you," he cooed dementedly at the now exposed Robin.

Seeing that he had no other choice, the caped crusader got to his feet and took a fighting stance.

"Aw, that's cute. You actually think you can stand against me," Beta mocked. "Face it, no matter how good you think you are, the only one of you Titans that stands chance against me is Cyborg. And maybe that Starfire girl. But by now they're probably both downstairs and half conscious."

Robin's brow quirked at that statement. He smirked a plan started to form.

"You know, you're right, there is something you do a lot better than me."

"Of course. But humor me, what exactly is it?"

"You talk too much!"

Robin emphasized his point by throwing down a few smoke pellets, the quickly filled the room in a thick haze. While he knew it wouldn't keep the android off guard for long he knew it would disorientate him long enough for him to past him. Once out of the office, he made a beeline for the elevator he and the others had come up on. True to Beta's word, the other Titans were nowhere to be found, but then neither were the other members of Terror Sect. He didn't know whether to be relived or more upset by that fact. He nearly smashed the "Down" button when he got to it and anxiously waited for the elevator. Unfortunately, during that wait, a familiar coil snaked around his left ankle and pulled him backward. Beta had a malicious gleam in his eye as he swung the boy into one of the few cubicle walls that still stood. He then pulled his arm the other way and smashed him into a wall. Despite himself, Robin let out a scream as the collision pulled at his chest wound even more. As Beta tried for another round of "Smash Robin", Titan pulled out another explosive disk and tossed it towards the android's arm. Though it didn't quite reach its target, it did land well enough to cut the line and send him flying into the now open elevator. He picked himself up, stumbled over to the button pad, and pressed the one for the lobby. The door closed just as Beta reached them and tired to punch through them, leaving a deep, fist shaped dent in the doors.

Robin sighed and backed up against the wall then slid to the floor. His body was bruised and broken and the only thing keeping him from passing out was the thought of helping his friends. He just wasn't sure how to do that just yet. He hoped that the other Titans had been able to get a few licks of their own in on the other members of Terror Sect so that they wouldn't be in fighting form either. He hoped, but didn't count on it. If they weren't, then he had no idea on how he would pull them out of this mess. The elevator stopped and the doors chimed open much too early for him. Mustering all the strength he could, he limped out of the elevator, across the lobby and out the front doors.

Outside, he saw a sight that made his heart sink even more. The Titans all lay in an undignified heap, Cyborg so far into the ground that he looked like he had been thrown out from the 7th floor, while all the remaining members of Terror Sect stood over them. Thankfully, his team hadn't gone down without a fight and the villains all sported some bruises of their own, though nowhere near as bad as those the Titans had sustained. He stared at them and they stared back at him, each one seeming to dare the other to make a move. That move came in the form of Beta slapping Robin on the back and sending him forward with the rest of his defeated team.

"Sorry I'm late," Beta spoke up. "He's a lot tougher than he looks."

"I know," Strika replied, looking down at Robin.

"So-so now what?" Mercurial asked nervously.

"I say we fry 'em. Especially the witch!" Pyra remarked with a dangerous gleam in her eye.

"You'll do nothing of the sort," a new, deeper voice broke in.

Robin propped himself up on his hands and forced his head up to see the newcomer. What he saw was a man dressed in a long, black trench coat that was buttoned all the way up, covering at least a pair of black pants and books. On his head a black fedora, head that rested on top of a slimmed down helmet with a reflected mask covering up his face. His hands were in the coat's pockets and he walked with a casual step, coming to stop just before the fallen Titans. By the way, the Terror Sect member stepped aside for him, Robin assumed this man was their true leader.

"Who-who are you?" he asked, drawing from quickly fading strength.

"I am Mr. Dark. As I'm sure you've figured out by now I was the one up put together this fine group," he motioned to standing teens.

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

"Please. Don't insult me by assuming I'll tell you all my plans. All you need to know is that I am here before you now to offer you a deal."

"What deal?"

"Look around you Robin," Mr. Dark replied, pulling his hand out of his pockets and arching them wide. "This city is just full of people and buildings. Buildings full of offices like the one you just destroyed. It was empty tonight, but imagine if I had my group attack during the day. Your Teen Titans have experience the force my Terror Sect can unleash, imagine what they could do to innocent bystanders."

Robin's eyes widened at the implication of that statement.

"You...bastard," he spat.

"Perhaps," Mr. Dark agreed, placing his hands back in his pockets. "But really, you're no better. You claim to be acting in the interest of the people, and yet how many get caught in the crossfire of your battles? How many innocent people have been hurt because a fight dragged on just a little too long? Do you even think about these facts? I'm assuming you do. That it haunts your dreams late a night. People hurt, perhaps dead because of your carelessness. Well I make you this promise Robin, more **will** get hurt if you continue to fight my group. Is that what you really want?" He shook his head. "No, I don't think so. So I offer you this deal, just this one time. Walk away. Just walk away. Go back to your tower, patch yourselves up and never cross our paths again. Just walk away and we can avoid all the needless bloodshed."

"And let you take over the city? The world? Never," Robin growled, the determination in his voice renewed.

"Now Robin, think about this carefully. What would the other Titans say."

"We...would agree," Starfire suddenly said, pulling herself to her feet.

"Yeah. We're not letting some goof in a fancy mask bully us," Cyborg added, rising as well.

"No matter how much it may hurt," Raven joined in.

"Or how many times we get our butts kicked," Beast Boy finished.

Robin smiled to himself as he suddenly found the strength to stand as well, albeit shakily. He pulled himself up to as much height as his bruises would let him and stared Mr. Dark directly in the face. Though the faceplate he could the reflection of himself and the other Titans. They looked the bloodied, bruised, and ready to fall down at any moment, but there was something else he could see. It was in there eyes, beaming as brightly in the reflection as it would in reality; determination. As sign that though they may be hurt for now they were far from beaten.

"Well, I think you have your answer," the Titan's leader responded.

A small, amused sound came from Mr. Dark.

"Very well," he said, and in the distance they could here a helicopter approaching. "But remember what I said. Our battle will be long and drawn out. Many lives will hurt or perhaps lost. A great deal of damage will be done to your city. And all of it, all the pain and suffering and bloodshed, all of it will be on your heads."

The helicopter appeared above them as he finished his speech and began to lower to the ground. The Terror Sect members were already heading for it as Mr. Dark continued to stare at them, his coat tails and belt flowing from the wind of the propellers as he held his had in place.

"Just remember, I gave you a chance to avoid the coming devastation and you spat in my face. Think about it heroes," he spat the last word out as if it were poisonous then turned and followed his team into the helicopter.

The Teen Titans simply watched at the vehicle took off once again. Although their wills were strong enough to follow him, their bodies simply were not. Instead, they watched helplessly as their newest enemies flew off, the words for Mr. Dark floating through their heads. Whatever their coming battles may hold they would face them together as a team, and that would get them through it all. They couldn't tell what was going to happen. The only thing they knew, was that this was just the beginning.

THE END...for now.

Author's Notes: First off, I want to apologize for the MASSIVE delay in getting this chapter out. All I can say is that the combination of work and school is a bitch! Specially since this is my last year and the classes I need to take pile on the homework. So pretty much after all that I had little time/energy to write on this story. So I hope whoever was following the story before my little hiatus is still reading and I maybe the sudden reappearance of the fic will get some new people to read it. Now that that's out of the way, I hope those of you how ARE reading enjoyed the chapter and aren't too upset that it's not a complete ending. I do have a plan in place to make this an overall arch alla the seasons of the Teen Titans cartoon. Admitly that plan has been pushed back more than I would have liked, but I'm still going to go ahead with it. I just don't know how long it will take. Hopefully you will all stay with it was I plan to involve all sorts of new villians and heros and deathtraps and all that fun stuff. "There will be surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous". Well...not dangerous for the reader at least. I think tihs show it'll be plenty dangerous for the Titans. But where would the fun be if it wasn't?

Oh and I feel I should mention this. In addition to my school work I do plan on writing fics for other shows as well, so don't be surprised if the next story in this arch is slow in showing up. The first thing I need to finish now that this is done is a Kim Possible/Havery Birdman Attorney At Law crossover. If I don't, I think my roommate will hurt me. So look for that.

Now then, onto the reader reviews(as if anyone remembers what they wrote):

JustIce37: Well as I said above I hope you liked this chapter and I know it didn't reveal much of their plans, but it's all in small steps. All will be made clear in time. And yes, that PEZ thing was from the Seinfeld ep. Now the question is, can you catch all the pop culture references in this chapter?

TDG3RD: Nope, not Slade. Mr. Dark is his own person he just likes to keep his real name and face a secret like most villians do. It's their thing.

Sleeping Bag: Thanks for the heads up on the spelling stuff and hopefully this chapter didn't have as many mistakes. Really though I need to take time out to thank my beta reader Ayanna Wildfire for making me look a hell of a lot better than I do. Don't know what I would do without her. Thanks for the praise on the dialouge too. I really try to follow the Joss Weadon example where if you have to do heavy dialouge, make the characters as interesting as you can so it doesn't feel like a big exposition dump. Seems I have acheived that. I am happy. Hope the first half of this chap held up to those standards.


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